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TRUE AMERICAN; 

CONTAINING THE 

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES, 

TOGETHER WITH THE 

FIRST ANNUAL ADDRESSES AND MESSAGES 

OF ALL THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM 1789 TO 1839 J 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AND CONSTITUTION 
OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH THE SIGNERS' NAMES ; 

ALSO, THE 

FAREWELL ADDRESSES OF WASHINGTON AND JACKSONj 

AN ADDRESS 

TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE COUNTRY, 

AND A 
VARIETT OF OTHER MATTER USEFUL AND ENTERTAININa. 

BY JOSEPH COE. 



CONCe^ftD, N. H. 

PUBLISHED BY I. S. BOYD. 

1840. 

9r 



■ C ''I 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, 

By Joseph Coe, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of New Hampshire. 



STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

D. WATSON, CONCORD, N. H. 



PREFACE. 



The Editor of this volume deems it proper to 
say a few words to his readers in explanation of 
the reasons which led him, after calm and mature 
deliberation, to give it to the world. 

Its publication is principally intended for the 
benefit of the young men of our common country. 
They will soon wield the destinies and control the 
interests of this great nation, and it is very import- 
ant that their minds should take a right direction, 
and be governed by right views, right principles, 
and right feelings concerning our great political 
interests. The Messages of our Presidents, and 
the other papers embodied in this book, are thought 
to be eminently calculated to produce this etfect. 

Our political institutions were founded by wise 
men, and are the best, freest, and safest the world 
has ever seen. Their durability depends upon the 
watchful care of the people. If they shall ever 
have to mourn their overthrow, the primary cause 
will be found in a want of patriotic vigilance. The 
people must constantly remember that the great 
foe of American liberty is a wealthy aristocracy. 
It has been and ever will be, from time to time, 
the duty of the state and national governments to 
check, by legal enactments, the influence and power 
of overgrown moneyed corporations ; and it is the 
solemn duty of the people to protect and sustain 
them in such enactments. 

The great contest that has been waged for many 
years past, and now divides the people of this 



PREFACE. 



country, is a controversy between the real demo- 
cracy on the one hand, and an aristocracy of wealth 
on the other. 

That greatest of reformers, Jesus Christ, once 
said, " By their fruits ye shall know them." He 
was a true piophet ; and acting by the spirit of the 
future that rested upon him, he selected his fol- 
lowers from the common people, denouncing, with 
great and just severity, the overbearing propensi- 
ties of the rich scribes and pharisees. His party 
was then, is now, and ever will be a perfect party, 
so far as it follows his precepts, and adheres to his 
equalizing doctrines. 

All other parties are imperfect, and tend to decay. 
The democratic party, by adhering with a firm 
and unwavering faith, to its glorious creed, ap- 
proaches nearly to political perfection, because that 
creed is identified with universal humanity. 
Whatever obstacles, therefore, may obstruct its 
progress ultimately, it cannot fail to triumph 
throughout the world. 

The great cause of freedom, and the necessity 
of handing down to posterity, unimpaired, the 
principles and institutions of this mighty Union, 
should be looked after with the utmost watchful- 
ness by every true American. And in the present 
political contest, we should look to the great inte- 
rests involved, interests which reach far beyond 
any thing merely local or temporary. And in thus 
doing, they should look beyond the strife and noise 
of party conflict, to the great end which it is the 
work of the American people to accomplish. 

Durham, Aug. 15, 1840. 



CONTENTS. 

Declaration of Independence 5 

Constitution of tlie United States 10 

Amendments to the Constitution 23 

Washington's Inaugural Address 26 

Washington's First Annual Address 30 

Adams's Inaugural Address 33 

Adams's First Annual Address 39 

Jefferson's Inaugural Address 45 

Jefferson's First Annual Message 51 

Madison's Inaugural Addr^'ss 60 

Madison's First Annual Message 63 

Monroe's Inaugural Address 68 

Monroe's First Annual Message 77 

J. Q. Adams's Inaugural Address. 90 

J. Q. Adams's First Annual Message 98 

Jackson's Inaugural Address 123 

Jackson's First Annual Message 126 

Maysville Road Veto 155 

Bank Veto. 169 

Jackson's Second Inaugural Address 191 

Protest 194 

Van Buren's Inaugural Address 228 

"Van Buren's Special Session Message 238 

Van Buren's First Annual Message 270 

Washington's Farewell Address 302 

Jackson's FareAvell Address ....319 

Address to the Young Men and to the People of America. ...341 

The Currency 385 

Opinions of Alexander Hamilton 410 

The Perfection of Government, by Gov. Morton 414 

Democracy and Reform 416 

Prospects of the Democracy .424 

Washington's Opinion of Paper Money .426 



TRUE AMERICAN 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
which have connected them with another, and to assume, 
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal 
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God 
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind 
requires that they should declare the causes which impel 
them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure 
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deri- 
ving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; 
and that, whenever any form of government becomes de- 
structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to 
alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying 
its foundations on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will 
dictate that governments, long established, should not be 
changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, 
all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed 
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
selves by abolishing the forms to which they^are accus- 
tomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpa- 
tions, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a de- 
sign to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their 
1* 



6 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and 
to provide new guards for their future security. Such 
has been the patient sufferance of the colonies, and such 
is now the necessity which constrains thein to aUer their 
former systems of government. The history of the pre- 
sent king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries 
and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establish- 
ment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove 
this, let facts be submitted to a candid world : 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome 
and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of imme- 
diate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
operations till his assent should be obtained ; and, when 
so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation 
of large districts of people, unless those people would re- 
linquish the right of representation in the legislature; a 
right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places un- 
usual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of 
their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for 
opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights 
of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, 
to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative pow- 
ers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the peo- 
ple at large for their exercise ; the state remaining, in the 
mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from 
without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these 
states ; for that purpose, obstructing the laws of naturali- 
zation of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage 
their migration thither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has Obstructed the administration of justice, by re» 
fusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for 
the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment 
of their salaries. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 7 

He has erected a multitude of new oiBces, and sent 
hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat 
out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing ar- 
mies, without the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, 
and superior to, the civil power. 

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a juris- 
diction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged 
by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretend- 
ed legislation. 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punish- 
ment for any murders which they should commit on the 
inhabitants of these states. 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent. 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benelit of trial 
by jury. 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pre- 
tended offences : 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a 
neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary 
government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render 
it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing 
the same absolute rule into these colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most va- 
luable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our 
governments : 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring 
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all 
cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us 
out of his protection, and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt 
our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign 
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, 
and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cru- 
elty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous 
ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 



8 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive 
on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to 
become the executioners of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and 
has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our fron- 
tiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule 
of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned 
for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated 
petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A 
prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which 
may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British 
brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of 
the attempts, by their legislature, to extend an unwar- 
rantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them 
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement 
here. We have appealed to their native justice and mag- 
nanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our 
common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which 
would inevitably interrupt our connections and corre- 
spondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of 
justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac- 
quiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, 
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies 
in war, in peace, friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States 
of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing 
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of 
our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of 
the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and 
declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought 
to be, free and independent States ; that they are absol- 
ved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all 
political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, 
as free and independent States, they have full power to 
levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish 
commerce, and to do all other acts and things which in" 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



dependent States may of right do. And, for the support 
of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection 
of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other 
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, 
engrossed, and signed by the following members : 

JOHN HANCOCK. 



JVeio Hampshire. 
JOSEPH BARTLETT, 
WILLIAM WHIPPLE, 
MATTHEW THORNTON. 

Massachusetts Bay. 
SAMUEL ADAMS, 
JOHN ADAMS, 
ROBERT TREAT PAINE, 
ELBRIDGE GERRY. 

Rhode Ishmd. 
STEPHEN HOPKINS, 
WILLIAM ELLERY. 

Connecticut. 

ROGER SHERMAN, 
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, 
WILLIAM WILLIAMS, 
OLIVER WOLCOTT. 

Jicw York. 
WILLIAM FLOYD, 
PHILIP LIVINGSTON, 
FRANCIS LEWIS, 
LEWIS MORRIS. 

JVeio Jersey. 
RICHARD STOCKTON, 
JOHN WITHERSPOON, 
FRANCIS HOPKINSON, 
JOHN HART, 
ABRAHAM CLARK. 

Pennsylvania. 
ROBERT MORRIS, 
BENJAMIN RUSH, 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
JOHN MORTON, 
GEORGE CLYMER, 
JAMES SMITH, 



GEORGE TAYLOR, 
JAMES WILSON, 
GEORGE ROSS. 

Delaware. 
C^SAR RODNEY, 
GEORGE READ, 
THOMAS M'KEAN, 

Maryland. 

SAMUEL CHASE, 
WILLIAM PACA, 
THOMAS STONE, 
CHARLES CARROLL, of 

Carrollton. 

Virginia. 
GEORGE WYTHE, 
RICHARD HENRY LEE, 
THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
BENJAMIN HARRISON, 
THOMAS NELSON, Jr. 
FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE, 
CARTER BRAXTON. 

North Carolina. 

WILLIAM HOOPER, 
JOSEPH HEWES, 
JOHN PENN. 

South Carolina. 

EDWARD RUTLEDGE, 
THOMAS HEYWARD, Jr. 
THOMAS LYNCH, Jr., 
ARTHUR MIDDLETON. 

Georgia. 

BUTTON GWINNETT, 
LYMAN HALL, 
GEORGE WALTON. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



We, the People of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for the conmion defence, promote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish 
this Constitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Sec. I. — All legislative powers herein granted shall be 
vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall 
consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 

Sec. II. — 1. The House of Representatives shall be 
composed of members chosen every second year, by the 
people of the several states : and the electors in each 
state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of 
the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not 
have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been seven 
years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, 
when elected, be an inhabitant of the state in which he 
shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportion- 
ed among the several states which may be included within 
this union, according to their respective numbers, which 
shall be determined by adding to the whole number of 
free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and, excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of 
all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made 
within three years after the first meeting of the Congress 
of the United States, and within every subsequent term 
of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. 
The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for 
every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least 
one representative : and until such enumeration sh;Ul be 
made, the state of Nav Jlamjii^hirc shall be entitled to 



CONSTlTtlttON. 11 

choose three ; Massachusetts, eight ; Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations, one ; Connectici/t, five ; Neto 
York, six ; New Jwsey, four ; Pennsylvania, eight ; Dela- 
ware, one ; Maryland, six ; Virginia, ten ; North Carolina, 
five ; South Carolina, five ; Georgia, three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from 
any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs 
of election to hll such vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their 
speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power 
of impeachment. 

Sec. III. — 1. The Senate of the United States shall 
be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by 
the legislature thereof, for six years ; and each senator 
shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in conse- 
quence of the first election, they shall be divided, as 
equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the 
senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expira- 
tion of the second year, of the second class at the expi- 
ration of the fourth year, and the third class at the ex- 
piration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen 
every second year; and if vacancies happen by resig- 
nation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature 
of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary 
appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, 
which shall then fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have 
attained the age of thirty years, and been nine years a 
citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall 
be chosen. 

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be 
President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless 
they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also 
a president pro tempore in the absence of the Vice Pre- 
sident, or when he shall exercise the office of President 
of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all im- 
peachments. When sitting for that purpose they shall be 



l^ THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

on oath or affirmation. When the President of the Uni- 
ted States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ; and 
no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of 
two thirds of the members present. 

7. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not ex- 
tend further than to removal from office, and disqualifi- 
cation to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or 
profit under the United States ; but the party convicted 
shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, 
trial, judgment, and punishment according to lavi^. 

Sec. IV. — 1. The times, places, and manner of hold- 
ing elections for senators and representatives shall be 
prescribed in each state, by the legislature thereof; but 
the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter 
such regulations, except as to the places of choosing 
senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every 
year ; and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in 
December, unless they shall by law appoint a different 
day. 

Sec. V. — 1. Each house shall be judge of the elec- 
tions, returns and qualifications of its own members ; and 
a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do busi- 
ness ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, 
and may be authorized to compel the attendance of ab- 
sent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, 
as each house may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its pro- 
ceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, 
and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
and from time to time publish the same, excepting such 
parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy ; and the 
yeas and nays of the members of either house on any 
question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, 
be entered on the journal. 

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, 
shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more 
than three days, nor to any other place than that in which 
the two houses shall be sitting. 

Sec. VI. — 1. The senators and representatives shall 



CONSTITUTION. Ig 

receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertain- 
ed by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United 
States. They- shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, 
and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest, dur- 
ing their attendance at the session of their respective 
houses, and in going to or returning from the same ; and 
for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not 
be questioned in any other place; 

3. No senator "or represent ativfe sluill, during the time 
for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office 
under the authority of the United States, which shall have- 
been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been 
increased, during such time ; and no person holding any 
office under the United States, shall be a member of ei- 
ther house, during his continuance in office. 

Sec. VII. — 1. All bills for raising revenue shall ori^ 
ginate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate 
may propose or concur with amendments as on other 
bills. 

2. Every bill, which shall have passed the House of 
Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become 
a law, be presented to the President of the United States; 
if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall retura 
it with his objections, to that house in which it shall have 
originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their 
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such re- 
consideration, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass 
the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to 
the other house, and if approved by two thirds of that 
house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the 
votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and 
nays ; and the names of the persons voting for and against 
the bill, shall be entered on the journals of each house 
respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the 
President withiu ten days (Sundays excepted) after it 
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, 
in like manner as if he had signed it, unless Concrress, by 
then- adjournment, prevent its return ; in which case it 
shall not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the con- 
currence of the Senate and House of Representatives 

2 



14 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) 
shall be presented to the President of the United States ; 
and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved 
by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed 
by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in 
the case of a bill. 

Sec. VIII. — The Congress shall have power — 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and ex- 
cises ; to pay the debts and provide for the common de- 
fence and general welfare of the United States ; but all 
duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout 
the United States : 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United 
States : 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
among the several states, and with the Indian tribes : 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and 
uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout 
the United States : 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of 
foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and mea- 
sures : 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting 
the securities and current coin of the United States : 

7. To establish post-offices and post-roads : 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, 
by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, 
the exclusive right to their respective writings and dis- 
coveries : 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme 
court : 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies commit- 
ted on the high seas, and offences against the law of na- 
tions : 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and re- 
prisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and 
water : 

12. To raise and support armies; but no appropria- 
tion of money to that use shall be for a longer term than 
two years : 



CONSTITUTION. 15 

13. To provide and maintain a navy : 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation 
of the land and naval forces : 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
the laws of the union, suppress insurrections, and repel 
invasions : 

16. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining 
the militia, and for governing such part of them as may 
be employed in the service of the United States, reserv- 
ing to the states respectively the appointment of the offi- 
cers, and the authority of training the militia, according 
to the discipline prescribed by Congress : 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases what- 
soever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) 
as may, by cession of particular states, and the accept- 
ance of Congress, become the seat of government of the 
United States, and to exercise like authority over all places 
purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state 
in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, 
magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful build- 
ings : And, 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, 
and all other powers vested by this constitution in the 
government of the United States, or in any department 
or officer thereof 

Sec. IX. — 1. The migration or importation of such 
persons as any of the states, now existing, shall think 
proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight : 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, 
not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not 
be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or inva- 
sion, the public safety may require it. 

3. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be 
passed. 

4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, un- 
less in proportion to the census or enumeration herein 
before directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported 



16 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

from any state. No preference shall be given, by any 
regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one 
state over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to or 
from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties 
in another. 

6. No money shall be drawn from tlie treasury, but in 
consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a re- 
gular statement and account of the receipts and expendi- 
tures of all public money shall be published from time to 
time. 

7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United 
States ; and no person holding any office of proiit or trust 
under them shall, without the consent of tiie Congress, 
accept of any present, emolument, office or title of any 
kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Sec. X. — 1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alli- 
ance, or confederation ; grant letters of marque and re- 
prisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any thing 
but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; 
pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law im- 
pairing the obligation of contracts ; or grant any title of 
nobility. 

2. No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, 
lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except 
what may be absolutely necessary for executing its in- 
spection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and im- 
ports laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for 
the use of the treasury of the United States; and all 
such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of 
the Congress. No state shall, without the consent of 
Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships 
of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or 
compact with another state or with a foreign power, or 
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such immi- 
nent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Sec. I. — The executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States of America. He shall 
hold his oflice during the term of four years, and, tqge- 



CONSTITUTION. 17 

ther with tke Vice-President, chosen for the same term, 
be elected as follows : 

2. Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the le- 
gislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal 
to the whole number of senators and representatives to 
which the state may be entitled in the Congress ; but no 
senator or representative, or person holding an office of 
trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed 
an elector. 

3. [Annulled. See Amendments, art. 13.] 

4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing 
the electors, and the day on which they shall give their 
votes ; which day shall be the same throughout the Uni- 
ted States. 

5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citi- 
zen of the United States at the time of the adoption of 
this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of Presi- 
dent ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office, 
who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, 
and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

6. In case of the removal of the President from office, 
or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the 
powers and duties of said office, the same shall devolve 
on the Vice-President ; and the Congress may by law 
provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or in- 
ability, both of the President and Vice-President, declar- 
ing what officer shall then act as President, and such offi- 
cer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, 
or a President shall be elected. 

7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his 
services a compensation which shall neither be increased 
nor diminished during the period for which he shall have 
been elected ; and he shall not receive, within that peri- 
od, any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he 
shall take the following oath or affirmation : — 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 
execute the office of President of the United States, and 
will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and de- 
fend the constitution of the United States." 
2* 



18 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

Sec. II. — 1. The President shall be commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of 
the militia of the several states, when called into the ac- 
tual service of the United States : he may require the 
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the 
executive departments, upon any subject reliting to the 
duties of their respective offices ; and he shall have power 
to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the 
United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds 
of the senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, 
and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and 
consuls, judges of the supreme court, and all other offi- 
cers of the United States, whose appointments are not 
herein otherwise provided for, and v/hich shall be esta- 
blished by law. But the Congress may, by law, vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers as they think pro- 
per, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in 
the heads of departments. 

3. The President sliall have power to fill up all vacan- 
cies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by 
granting commissions which shall expire at the end of 
their next session. 

Sec. III. — 1. He shall, from time to time, give to the 
Congress information of the state of the union, and re- 
commend to their consideration such measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extra- 
ordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of 
them, and in case of disagreement between them, with 
respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them 
to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive 
ambassadors, and other public ministers ; he shall take 
care that the laws be faithfully executed ; and shall com- 
mission all the officers of the United States. 

Sec IV. — 1. The President, Vice-President, and all 
civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from 
office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors 



CONSTITUTION. 19 

ARTICLE III. 

Sec. I. — 1. The judicial power of the United States 
shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior 
courts as the Congress may, from time, ordain and esta- 
blish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and 
shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compen- 
sation which shall not be diminished during their contin- 
uance in office. 

Sec. II. — 1. The judicial power shall extend to all 
cases in law and equity arising under this constitution, the 
laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which 
shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting- 
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls ; to all 
cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to contro- 
versies to v/hich the United States sliall be a party ; to 
controversies between two or more states ; between a 
state and citizens of another state; between citizens of 
different states ; between citizens of the same state, claim- 
ing lands under grants of different states, and between 
a state, of the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citi- 
zens or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public mi- 
nisters and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a 
party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. 
In all other cases before mentioned, the supreme court 
shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, 
with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the 
Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeach- 
ment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the 
state where the said crimes shall have been committed; 
but when not committed within any state, the trial shall 
be at such place or places as the Congress may by law- 
have directed. 

Sec. III. — 1. Treason against the United States shall 
eonsist only in levying war against them, or in adhering 
to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No per- 
son shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony 
of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confessions in 
open court. 



20 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the pun- 
ishment of treason ; but no attainder of treason shall 
work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the 
life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Sec. I. — 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each 
state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings 
of every other state. And the Congress may, by general 
laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, 
and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Sec. II. — 1. The citizens of each state shall be enti- 
tled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the 
several states. 

2. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, 
or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found 
in another state, shall, on demand of the executive au- 
thority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up to 
be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one state, un- 
der the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in con- 
sequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be 
due. 

Sec. III. — 1. New states maybe admitted by the Con- 
gress into this union ; but no new state shall be formed 
or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor 
any state be formed by the junction of two or more 
states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legis- 
lature of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and 
make all needful rules and regulations respecting the 
territory or other property belonging to the United States ; 
and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as 
to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any 
particular state. 

Sec. IV. — 1. The United States shall guarantee to 
every state in this union, a republican form of govern- 
ment, and shall protect each of them against invasion j 



CONSTITUTION. 21 

and, on application of the legislature, or of the execu- 
tive, (when the legislature cannot be convened,) against 
domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

1. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses 
shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this 
constitution, or on the application of the legislatures of 
two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention 
for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be 
valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this constitu- 
tion, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of 
the several states, or by conventions in three fourths 
thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may 
be proposed by the Congress ; provided, that no amend- 
ment which may be made prior to the year one thousand 
eight hundred and eight, shall in any manner affect the 
first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first 
article ; and that no state, without its consent, shall be 
deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, 
before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid 
against the United States under this constitution, as under 
the confederation. 

2. This constitution, and the laws of the United States 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all trea- 
ties made, or which shall be made under the authority of 
the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; 
and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby ; any 
thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, 
and the members of the several state legislatures, and all 
executive and judicial officers, both of the United States 
and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affir- 
mation to support this constitution ; but no religious test 
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or 
public trust under the United States. 



23 



THE TRUE AMERICAN. 



ARTICLE VII. 

1. The ratification of the conventions of nine states 
shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution 
between the states so ratifying the same. 

Done in convention, by the unanimous consent of the 
states present, the seventeenth day of September, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America, the twelfth. In witness whereof, 
we have hereunto subscribed our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

President, and Dcjndij from Virginia. 
JVeic Hampshire. 
JOHN LANGDON, 
NICHOLAS OILMAN. 



Massachusetts. 

NATHANIEL GORHAM, 
RUFUS KING. 

Connecticut. 
WM. SAMUEL JOHNSON, 
ROGER SHERMAN. 

JVew York. 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

JVejo Jersey. 

WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, 
DAVID BREARLEY, 
WILLIAM PATTERSON, 
JONATHAN DAYTON. 

Pennsylvania . 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
THOMAS MIFFLIN, 
ROBERT MORRIS, 
GEORGE CLYMER, 
THOMAS FITZSIMONS, 
JARED INGERSOLL, 
JAMES WILSON, 
GOVERNEUR MORRIS. 



Delaicure. 
GEORGE REED, 
GUNNING BEDFORD, Jr. 
JOHN DICKERSON, 
RICHARD BASSETT, 
JACOB BROOM. 

Maryland. 
JAMES M'HENRY, 
DANIEL of ST. THO. 

JENIFER, 
DANIEL CARROLL. 

Virginia. 
JOHN BLAIR, 
JAMES MADISON, Jr. 

JVorth Carolina. 
WILLIAM BLOUNT, 
RICH. DOBBS SPAIGHT, 
HUGH WILLIAMSON. 

South Carolina. 
JOHN RUTLEDGE, 
CHARLES C. PINCKNEY, 
CHARLES PINCKNEY, 
PIERCE BUTLER. 

Georgia. 
WILLIAM FEW, 
ABRAHAM BALDWIN. 



..Attest, 



WILLIAM JACIICON, Secretary. 



AMENDMENTS, 23 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

Art. I. — Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer- 
cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of 
the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to as- 
semble and to petition the government for a redress of 
grievances. 

Art. II. — A well-regulated militia being necessary to 
the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep 
and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Art. III. — No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quar- 
tered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor 
in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 

Art. IV. — The right of the people to be secure in 
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unrea- 
sonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and 
no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, support- 
ed by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the 
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be 
seized. 

Art. V. — No person shall be held to answer for a capi- 
tal, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment 
or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in 
the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual 
service, in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any 
person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in 
jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled, in any 
criminal case, to be witness against himself, nor be de- 
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process 
of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use 
without just compensation. 

Art. VI. — In all criminal prosecutions, the accused 
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an 
impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime 
shall have been committed, which district shall have been 
previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the 
nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted 
with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory pro- 



24 THE TRUK AMERICAN. 

cess for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the 
assistance of counsel for his defence. 

Art. VIT. — In suits of common law, where the value 
in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars; the right of 
trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact, tried by a 
jury, shall be otlierwise re-examined in any court of the 
United States, than according to the rules of the com- 
mon law. 

Art. VIII. — Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punish-- 
ments inflicted. 

Art. IX. — The enumeration in the constitution, of 
certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage 
others retained by the people. 

Art. X. — The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the constitution, nor prohibited to it by the 
states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the 
people. 

Art. XI. — The judicial power of the United States 
shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or 
equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens 
or subjects of any foreign state. 

Art. XII. — 1. The electors shall meet in their respec-- 
tive states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice- 
President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabi- 
tant of the same state with themselves ; they shall name 
in their ballots the persons voted for as President, and in 
distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President ; 
and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for 
as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-Presi- 
dent, and of the number of votes for each ; which lists 
they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat 
of government of the United States, directed to the 
President of the Senate. The President of the Senate 
shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Re- 
presentatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall 
then be counted ; the person having the greatest number 
of votes for President, shall be President, if such number 
be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the per- 



AMENDiMENTS. 25 

sons having the highest number, not exceeding three on 
the list of those voted for as President, the House of Re- 
presentatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the Pre- 
sident. — But in choosing the President, the votes shall be 
taken by states, the representation from each state having 
one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a 
member or members from two thirds of the states, and a 
majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. 
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon 
them, before the fourth day of March next following, 
then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the 
case of the death or other constitutional disability of the 
President. 

3. The person having the greatest number of votes as 
Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number 
be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; 
and if no person have a majority, then from the two high- 
est numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice- 
President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two 
thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority 
of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 

3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office 
of President, shall be eligible to that of Vice-President 
of the United States. 

Art. XHI. — If any citizen of the United States shall 
accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or 
honor, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept 
or retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any 
kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign 
power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the Uni- 
ted States, and shall be incapable of holding any office 
of trust or profit under them, or either of them. 
3 



26 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

WASHINGTON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
APRIL 30, 1789. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 
Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could 
have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which 
the notification was transmitted by your order, and re- 
ceived on the 14th day of the present month. On the one 
hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can 
never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat 
which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in 
my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the 
asylum of my declining years, a retreat which was ren- 
dered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me 
by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent 
interruptions in my health, to the gradual waste committed 
on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and 
difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country 
called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and 
most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny 
into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with de- 
spondence, one, who, inheriting inferior endowments from 
nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil administra- 
tion, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own defi- 
ciences. In this conflict of emotions, all that I dare aver 
is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty 
from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which 
it might be effected. All I dare hope is, that if in execu- 
ting this task I have been too much swayed by a grateful 
remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate 
sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of 
my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted 
my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty 
and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by 
the motives which misled me, and its consequences be 
judged by my country with some share of the partiality 
with which thoy originated. 



Washington's inauopral address. 27 

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obe- 
dience to the public summons, repaired to the present 
station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this 
first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almigh- 
ty Being who rules over the universe — who presides in the 
councils of nations — and whose providential aids can 
supply every human defect, that his benediction may con- 
secrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the 
United States a government instituted by themselves for 
these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument 
employed in its administration to execute with success the 
functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this ho- 
mage to the great Author of every public and private good, 
I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less 
than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, 
less than either. No people can be bound to acknow- 
ledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the 
affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. 
Every step by which they have advanced to the character 
of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished 
by some token of providential agency ; and in the impor- 
tant revolution just accomplished in the system of their 
united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary 
consent of so many distinct communities, from which the 
event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means 
by which most governments have been established, with- 
out some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble 
anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems 
to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present 
crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to 
be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in think- 
ing that there are none under the influence of which the 
proceedings of a new and free government can more 
auspiciously commence. 

By the article establishing the executive department, it 
is made the duty of the President " to recommend to 
your consideration such measures as he shall judge ne- .■ 
cessary and expedient." The circumstances under which V 
I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that 
subject farther than to refer to the great constitutional 
charter under which you are assembled, and which, in 



28 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

defining your powers, designates the objects to whicli your 
attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with 
those circumstances, and far more congenial with the 
feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a 
recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is 
due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which 
adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. 
In these honorable qualifications! behold the surest pledges 
that, as on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, 
no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the 
comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over 
this great assemblage of communities and interests : so, 
on another, that the foundations of our national policy will 
be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private 
morality ; and the pre-eminence of free government be 
exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affec- 
tions of its citizens, and command the respect of the 
world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction 
which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since 
there is no truth more thoroughly established than that 
there exists in the economy and course of nature an in- 
dissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between 
duty and advantage ; between the genuine maxims of an 
honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of 
public prosperity and felicity ; since we ought to be no 
less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can 
never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal 
rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained, 
and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and 
the destiny of the republican model of government, are 
justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the 
experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people. 
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it 
will remain with your judgment to decide how far an ex- 
ercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth arti- 
cle of the constitution is rendered expedient at the pre- 
sent juncture by the nature of the objections which have 
been urged against the system, or by the degree of in- 
quietude which has given birth to them. Instead of un- 
dertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in 
which I could be guided by no lights derived from offi- 



Washington's inaugueal address, 29 

cial opportunities, 1 shall again give way to my entire 
confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public 
good ; for I assure myself that while you carefully avoid 
every alteration which might endanger the benefits of a 
united and effective government, or which ought to await 
the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the cha- 
racteristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the pub- 
lic harmony, will sufficiently influence your deliberations 
on the question how far the former can be more impreg- 
nably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously 
promoted. 

To the preceding observations I have one to add, which 
will be most properly addressed to the House of Repre- 
sentatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as 
brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call 
into the service of my country, then on the eve of an ar- 
duous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I con- 
templated my duty required that I should renounce every 
pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in 
no instance departed ; and being still under the impres- 
sions which produced it, I must decline, as inapplicable 
to myself, any share in the personal emoluments which 
may be indispensably included in a permanent provision 
for the executive department, and must accordingly pray 
that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I 
am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited 
to such actual expenditures as the public good may be 
thought to require. 

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they 
have been awakened by the occasion which brings us 
together, I shall take my present leave, but not without 
resorting once more to the benign Parent of the human 
race, in humble supplication that, since he has been 
pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for 
deliberating in perfect tranquility and dispositions for de- 
ciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of govern- 
ment for the security of their union and the advancement 
of their happiness, so his divine blessing may be equally 
conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consul- 
tations, and the wise measures on which the success of 
this government must depend. 



30 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

WASHINGTON'S FIRST ANNUAL ADDRESS, 

JANUARY 8, 1790. 

FtlloiD-Citizcns of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 

I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity which 
now presents itself of congratulating you on the present 
favorable prospects of our public affairs. The recent ac- 
cession of the important state of North Carolina to the 
constitution of the United States, (of which official in- 
formation has been received,) the rising credit and re- 
spectability of our country, the general and increasing 
good will towards the government of the Union, and the 
concord, peace, and plenty, with which we are blessed, 
are circumstances auspicious, in an eminent degree, to 
our national prosperity. 

In resuming your consultations for the general good, 
you cannot but derive encouragement from the reflection 
that the measures of the last session have been as satisfac- 
tory to your constituents, as the novelty and difficulty of 
the work allowed you to hope. Still further to realize 
their expectations, and to secure the blessings which a 
gracious Providence has placed within our reach, will, in 
the course of the present important session, call for the 
cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness, 
and wisdom. 

Among the many interesting objects which will engage 
your attention, that of providing for the common defence 
will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is 
one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. 

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disci- 
plined ; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is 
requisite : and their safety and interest require that they 
should promote such manufactures as tend to render them 
independent of others for essential, particularly military 
supplies. 

The proper establishment of the troops which may be 
deemed indispensable, will be entitled to mature conside- 
ration. In the arrangements v/hich may be made re- 
specting it, it will be of importance to conciliate the com- 



Washington's first annual address. 31 

fortable support of the officers and soldiers, with a due 
regard to econom)'. 

There was reason to hope that the pacific measures 
adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians 
would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and 
western frontiers from their depredations ; but you will 
perceive from the information contained in the papers 
which I shall direct to be laid before you, (comprehend- 
ing a communication from the commonwealth of Vir- 
ginia,) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection 
to those parts of the Union, and, if necessary, to punish 
aggressors. 

The interests of the United States require that our in- 
tercourse with other nations should be facilitated by such 
provisions as will enable me to fulfil my duty in that re- 
spect, in the manner which circumstances may render 
most conducive to the public good, and, to this end, that 
the compensations to be made to the persons who may 
be employed should, according to the nature of their 
appointments, be defined by law ; and a competent fund 
designated for defraying the expenses incident to the 
conduct of our foreign affairs. 

Various considerations also render it expedient that the 
terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights 
of citizens, should be speedily ascertained by a uniform 
rule of naturalization. 

Uniformity in the currency, v/eights, and measures of 
the United States is an object of great importance, and 
will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to. 

The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manu- 
factures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need re- 
commendation ; but I cannot forbear intimating to you 
the expediency of giving effectual encouragement, as well 
to the introduction of new mid useful inventions from 
abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in produ- 
cing them at home ; and of facilitating the intercourse 
between the distant parts of our country by a due atten- 
tion to the post-office and post-roads. 

Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with mc 
in opinion, that there is nothing which can better deserve 
your patronage than the promotion of science and litera- 



32 THE *RUE AMERICAS.', 

ture. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of 
public happiness. In one in which the measures of go- 
vernment receive their impressions so immediately from 
the sense of the community as in ours, it is proportiona- 
bly essential. To the security of a free constitution it 
contributes in various ways : by convincing those who 
are intrusted with the public administration, that every 
valuable end of government is best answered by the en- 
lightened confidence of the people ; and by teaching the 
people themselves to know and to value their own rights ; 
to discern and provide against invasions of them ; to dis- 
tinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise 
of lawful authority ; between burdens proceeding from a 
disregard to their convenience, and those resulting from 
the inevitable exigencies of society ; to discriminate the 
spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing 
the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy but tem- 
perate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviola- 
ble respect to the laws. 

Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by 
affording aids to seminaries of learning already establish- 
ed ; by the institution of a national university ; or by any 
other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the 
deliberations of the legislature. 

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : 

I saw with peculiar pleasure, at the close of the last 
session, the resolution entered into by you, expressive of 
your opinion that an adequate provision for the support of 
the public credit, is a matter of high importance to the 
national honor and prosperity. In this sentiment I en- 
tirely concur. And, to a perfect confidence in your best 
endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly con- 
sistent with the end, I add an equal reliance on the cheer- 
ful co-operation of the other branch of the legislature. 
It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a mea- 
sure in which the character and permanent interest of the 
United States are so obviously and so deeply concerned, 
and whicli has received so explicit a sanction from your 
declaration. 



ADAMs's INAUGURAL ADDUESS. 



33 



Gentlemen of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 

I have directed the proper officers to lay before you, 
respectively, such papers and estimates as regard the af- 
fairs particularly recommended to your consideration, 
and necessary to convey to you that information of the 
state of the Union which it is my duty to afford. 

The welfare of our country is the great object to which 
our cares and efforts ought to be directed. And I shall 
derive great satisfaction from a co-operation with you, in 
the pleasing, though arduous task of insuring to our fel- 
low-citizeiis the blessings which they have a right to ex- 
pect from a free, efficient, and equal government. 



ADAMS'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
MARCH 4, 1797. 

When it was first perceived, in early times, that no 
middle course for America remained, between unlimited 
submission to a foreign legislature, and a total indepen- 
dence of its claims, men of reflection were less appre- 
hensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets 
and armies they must determine to resist, than from those 
contests and dissensions which would certainly arise con- 
cerning the forms of government to be instituted over the 
whole and over the parts of this extensive country. Rely- 
ing, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice 
of^'their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the 
people, under an overruling Providence which had so sig- 
nally protected this country from the first, the represen- 
tatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than 
half its present number, not only broke to pieces the 
chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was 
lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound 
them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty. 

The zeal and ardor of the people, during the revolu- 
tionary war, supplying the place of government, com- 



34 



THE TKUE AMERICAK, 



manded a degree of order, sufficient at least for the tem- 
porary preservation of society. The confederation which 
was early felt to be necessary was prepared from the mo- 
dels of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies : the only 
examples which remain, with any detail and precision in 
history, and certainly the only ones which the people at 
large had ever considered. But, reflecting on the striking 
difference in so many particulars, between this country 
and those, where a courier may go from the seat of go- 
vernment to the frontier in a single day, it was then cer- 
tainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the 
formation of it, that it could not be durable." 

Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recom- 
mendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only 
m individuals, but in states, soon appeared with their me- 
ancholy consequences : universal languor ; jealousies and 
rivalries of states ; decline of navigation and commerce ; 
discouragement of necessary manufactures; universal fall 
m the value of lands and their produce ; contempt of 
public and private faith ; loss of consideration and credit 
with foreign nations ; and, at length, in discontents, ani- 
mosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrec- 
tion, threatening some great national calamity. 

In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were 
not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of 
mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures were pursued 
to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish 
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, dis- 
cussions, and deliberations, issued in the present happy 
constitution of government. 

Employed in the service of my country abroad during 
the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the 
constitution of the United States in a foreign country 
Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no public 
debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great 
satisfaction, as a result of good heads, prompted by good 
hearts ; as an experiment better adapted to the genius 
character, situation, and relations of this nation and 
country, than any which had ever been proposed or sug- 



ADAMS's INADGUftAL ADDRIiSS. 35 

crested. In its general principles and great outlines, it 

tvas conformable to such a system of government as I had 

ever most esteemed, and some states, my own native 

state Tn particular, had contributed to establish Claim- 

n'a ri^ht of suffrage, in common with my fellow-citi- 

"eL in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which 

was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them ai d 

he'r' I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it 

'j;r:u'occasions. in public and in private t was not 

then nor has been since, any objection to it, in ^Y m" d. 

hn the executive and senate were not more permanent. 

No ave lever entertame^^ 

"iteration in it, but such as the people themsdv s, in d.e 
course of their experience, should see and teel to be ne 
ce sary or expedient, and by their Representatives m Con- 
gress Ldthe^state legislatures, according to the consti- 

"Sril^ tS^bos^m ^^my country a^^r a pain^ 
s.nara don from it for ten years, I had the honor to be 
ectel to a station under the new order of things, and I 
Wi^^^^^^^^ myself under the most serious obli-, 

^^ioisTo support the constitution. The operation of it 
f;i eqv HeTthe most sanguine expectations of its friends 

Wh« otlier form of government, nidceil, can bO «ell 

""S^e" ™:;TiMe'::ndi.y m an ancient ,<.ea. t..t 
JJ^egations^ of men into c.ties ^^;'^^- 

ESS a?bH^^;= "? 

thv.ie CcU u^ u 1 ,^,- '.tip or ausust, than an ab- 

^''1T'vC":^r^<:^^^ often been seen in this 
sembly like that ^^'"^" "'% of a government, m 

ond the other chamber ot Congie..>, oi a ^ 

lectcd, at regular period:,, by Y^''^^';"^ p„, '„„ ,i,i„,r 
und execute law. for the general ijood. Can any tiiin. 



"^^^ 'niK TUUE AMEUICAN. 



essential, any tlnng more than mere ornament and deco- 
ration, be added to this by robes and diamonds f Can 
authority be more amiable and respectable, when it de- 
scends from accidents, or institutions established in re- 
mote antiquity, than when it springs fresh from the hearts 
and judgments of an honest and enlightened people ' 
t or It IS the people only that are represented : it is their 
power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their 
good, m every legitimate government, under whatever 
torm It may appear. The existence of such a govern- 
ment as ours, for any length of time, is a full proof of a 
general dissemination of knowledge and virtue through- 
out the whole body of the people. And what object'or 
consideration more pleasing than this, can be presented 
to the human mind ? If national pride is ever justifiable 
or excusable, it is when it springs, not from power or 
riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national 
innocence, information and benevolence. 

In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be un- 
taithful to ourselves, if we should ever lose siaht of the 
danger to our liberties, if any thing partial or extraneous 
should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and in- 
dependent elections. If an election is to be determined 
by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured 
by a party, through artifice or corruption, the governmeni 
may be the choice of a party, for its own ends, not of 
the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffraae 
can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menace^'s 
by traud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the 
government may not be the choice of the American peo- 
i'le, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations 
uho govern us, and not we, the people, who govern our- 
selves. And candid men will acknowledge, that in such 
cases, choice would have little ad ant ige to boast of over 
Jot or chance. ' 

Such is the amiable and interesting system of (rovern- 
ment (and such are some of the abuses to which it may 
be exposed) which the p ople of America have exhibited 
to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of 
all nations for eight years, under the administration of a 
citizen who, by a losig course of great actions, regulated 



ADAMs'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 37 

by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conduct- 
ing a people, inspired with the same virtues, and anima- 
ted with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty, 
to independence and peace, to increasing wealth nnd un- 
exampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fel- 
low-citizens, commanded the nighcst praises of foreign 
nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity. 

In that retirement which is his voluntary choice, may 
he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his ser- 
vices, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them 
to himself and the world, which are d;iily increasing, and 
that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this coun- 
try which is opening from year to year. His name may 
be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives, a bul- 
wark against all open or secret enemies of his country's 
peace. This example has been recommended to the imi- 
tation of his successors by both houses of Congress, and 
by the voice of the legislatures and the people throughout 
the nation. 

On this subject it might become me better to be silent, 
or to speak with diffidence ; but, as something may be 
expected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an 
apology, if I venture to say. That, 

If a preference, upon principle, of a free republican 
government, formed upon long and serious reflection, after 
a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth ; if an attach- 
ment to the constitution of the United States, and a con- 
scientious determination to support it, until it shall be al- 
tered by the judgments and wishes of the people, express- 
ed in the mode prescribed in it ; if a respectful attention 
to the constitutions of the individual states, and a con- 
stant caution and delicacy towards the state governments; 
if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, interest, 
honor, and happiness of all the states in the Union, with- 
out preference or regard to a northern or southern, an 
eastern or western position, their various political opin- 
ions on unessential points, or their personal attachments; 
if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denomina- 
tions ; if a love of science and letters, and a wish to pa- 
tronize every rational effort to encourage schools, col- 
leges, universities, academies, and every institution for pro- 
4 



38 THE TRUE AMERICAN, 

pagating knowledge, virtue, and religion, among all class*' 
es of the people, not only for their benign influence on 
the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of 
society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserv- 
ing our constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit 
of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the 
profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign in- 
fluence, which is the angel of destruction to elective go- 
vernments ; if a love of equal laws, of justice, and hu- 
manity in the interior administration; if an inclination to 
improve agriculture, commerce, and manufactures for ne- 
cessity, convenience, and defence; if a spirit of equity 
and humanity towards the aboriginal nations of America, 
and a disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining 
them to be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be 
more friendly to them ; if an inflexible determination to 
maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, and 
that system of neutrality and impartiality among the bel- 
ligerent powers of Europe which has been adopted by 
this government, and so solemnly sanctioned by both 
houses of Congress, and applauded by the legislatures of 
the states and the public opinion, until it shall be other- 
wise ordained by Congress ; if a personal esteem for the 
French nation, formed in a residence of seven years, 
chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve 
the friendship which has been so much for the honor and 
interest of both nations ; if, while the conscious honor and 
integrity of the people of America, and the internal senti- 
ment of their own power and energies must be preserved, 
an earnest endeavor to investigate every just cause, and 
remove every colorable pretence of complaint ; if an in- 
tention to pursue by amicable negotiation a reparation for 
the injuries that have been committed on the commerce 
of our fellow-citizens by whatever nation ; and if success ' 
cannot be obtained, to lay the facts before the legislature, 
that they may consider what further measures the honor 
and interest of the government and its constituents de- 
mand ; if a resolution to do justice, as far as may depend 
upon me, at all times and to all nations, and maintain 
peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world ; 
if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and re- 



Adams's first annual address. 39 

sources of the American people, on which I have so often 
hazarded my all, and never been deceived ; if elevated 
ideas of the high destinies of this country and of my own 
duties towards it, founded on a knowledge of the moral 
principles and intellectual improvements of the people, 
deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscu- 
red, but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble 
reverence, I feel it to he my duty to add, if a veneration for 
the religion of a people who profess and call themselves 
Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent 
respect for Christianity among the best recommendations 
for the public service, can enable me, in any degree, to 
comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endea- 
vor^ that this sagacious injunction of the two houses shall 
uot be without effect. 

With this great example before me, with the sense and 
spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest, of the 
same American people, pledged to support the constitu- 
tion of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its con- 
tinuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared, with- 
out hesitation, to lay myself under the most solemn obli- 
gations to support it to the utmost of my power. 

And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Pa- 
tron of order, the Fountain of justice, and the Protector, 
in all ages of the world, of virtuous liberty, continue his 
blessing upon this nation and its government, and give it 
all possible success and duration consistent with the ends 
of his Providence. 

ADAMS'S FIRSl' ANNUAL ADDRESS, 

NOVEMBER 23, 1797. 

Gentlemen of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 
I was for some time apprehensive that it would be ne- 
cessary, on account of the contagious sickness which af- 
flicted the city of Philadelphia, to convene the national 
legislature at some other place. This measure it was 



40 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

desirable to avoid, because it would occasion much public 
inconvenience, and a considerable public expense, and 
add to the calamities of the inhabitants of this city, whose 
sufferings must have excited the sympathy of all their fel- 
low-citizens ; therefore, after taking measures to ascer- 
tain the state and decline of the sickness, 1 postponed 
my determination, having hopes, now happily realized, 
that, without hazard to the lives of the members. Con- 
gress might assemble at this place, where it was by law 
next to meet. I submit, however, to your consideration, 
wJiether a power to postpone the meeting of Congress, 
without passing the time fixed by the constitution, upon 
such occasions, would not be a useful amendment to the 
law of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four. 

Although I cannot yet congratulate you on the re- 
establishment of peace in Europe, and the restoration of 
security to the persons and properties of our citizens 
from injustice and violence at sea ; we have, nevertheless, 
abundant cause of gratitude to the Source of benevo- 
lence and influence, for interior tranquillity and personal 
security, for propitious seasons, prosperous agriculture, 
productive fisheries, and general improvements, and, 
above all, for a rational spirit of civil and religious liber- 
ty, and a calm but steady determination to support our 
sovereignty, as well as our moral and religious principles, 
against all open and secret attacks. 

Our envoys extraordinary to the French republic em- 
barked, one in July, the other early in August, to join 
their colleague in Holland. I have received intelligence 
of the arrival of both of them in Holland, from whence 
they all proceeded on their journey to Paris, within a few 
days of the 19th of September. Whatever may be the 
result of this mission, I trust that nothing will have been 
omitted, on my part, to conduct the negotiation to a suc- 
cessful conclusion, on such equitable terms as may be 
compatible with the safety, honor, and interest of the 
United States. Nothing, in the mean time, will contri- 
bute so much to the preservation of peace, and the at- 
tainment of justice, as a manifestation of that energy 
and unanimity, of which, on many former occasions, the 
people of the United States have given such memorable 



ADAMs's FIRST ANNUAL ADDRESS. 41 

proofs, and the exertion of those resources for national 
defence which a beneficent Providence has kindly placed 
within their power. 

It may be confidently asserted that nothing has occur- 
red, since the adjournment of Congress, which renders in- 
expedient those precautionary measures recommended by 
me to the consideration of the two houses, at the open- 
ing of your late extraordinary session. If that system 
was then prudent, it is more so now, as increasing depre- 
dations strengthen the reasons for its adoption. 

Indeed, whatever may be the issue of the negotiation 
with France, and whether the war in Europe is, or is not, 
to continue, I hold it most certain, that permanent tran- 
quillity and order will not soon be obtained. The state 
of society has so long been disturbed, the sense of moral 
■and religious obligations so much weakened, public faith 
and national honor have been so impaired, respect to trea- 
ties has been so diminished, and the law of nations has 
lost so much of its force ; while pride, ambition, avarice, 
and violence, have been so long unrestrained, there re- 
mains no reasonable ground on which to raise an expec- 
tation, that a commerce without protection or defence 
will not be plundered. 

Tlie commerce of the United States is essential, if not 
to their existence, at least to their comfort, their growth, 
prosperity, and happiness. The genius, character, and 
habits of the people are highly commercial ; their cities 
have been formed and exist upon commerce ; our agri- 
culture, fisheries, arts, and manufactures, are connected 
with and depend upon it. In short, commerce has made 
this country what it is, and it cannot be destroyed or ne- 
glected without involving the people in poverty and dis- 
tress. Great numbers are directly and solely supported 
l)y navigation ; the faith of society is pledged for the pre- 
servation of 'the rights of commercial and seafaring, no 
less than of the other citizens. Under this view of our 
affairs, I should hold myself guilty of a neglect of duty, 
if I forbore to recommend that we should make every ex- 
ertion to protect our commerce, and to place our country 
in a suitable posture of defence, as the only sure means 
of preserving both. 
4* 



43 THB TRUE AMERICAN. 

I have entertained an expectation tliat it would have 
been in my power, at the opening of this session, to have 
communicated to you the agreeable information of the 
due execution of our treaty with his Catholic majesty, 
respecting the withdrawing of his troops from our terri- 
tory, and the demarkation of the line of limits ; but, by 
the latest authentic intelligence, Spanish garrisons were 
still continued within our country, and the running of 
the boundary line had not been commenced ; these cir- 
cumstances are the more to be regretted, as they cannot 
fail to affect the Indians in a manner injurious to the Uni- 
ted States. Still, however, indulging the hope that the 
answers which have been given will remove the objec- 
tions offered by the Spanish officers to the immediate 
execution of the treaty, I have judged it proper that we 
should continue in readiness to receive the posts, and to 
run the line of limits. Further information on this sub- 
ject will be communicated in the course of the session. 

In connection with this unpleasant state of things on 
our western frontier, it is proper for me to mention the 
attempts of foreign agents to alienate the affections of 
the Indian nations, and to excite them to actual hostili- 
ties against the United States ; great activity has been 
exerted by those persons who have insinuated themselves 
among the Indian tribes residing within the territory of 
the United States, to influence them to transfer their af- 
fections and force to a foreign nation, to form them into 
a confederacy, and prepare them for a war against the 
United States. Although measures have been taken to 
counteract these infractions of our rights, to prevent 
Indian hostilities, and to preserve entire their attachment 
to the United States, it is my duty to observe, that, to 
give a better effect to these measures, and to obviate the 
consequences of a repetition of such practices, a law 
providing adequate punishment for such offences may be 
necessary. 

The commissioners appointed under the fifth article of 
the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation between 
the United States and Great Britain, to ascertain the river 
which was truly intended under the name of the river St 
Croix, mentioned in the treaty of peace, met at Passa- 



ADAMS's FIRST ANNUAL ADDRESS- 43 

raaquoddy Bay, in October, one thousand seven hundred 
and ninety-six, and viewed the mouths of the rivers in 
question, and adjacent shores on the islands ; and being 
of opinion, that actual surveys of both rivers, to their 
sources, were necessary, gave to the agents of the two 
nations instructions for that purpose, and adjourned to 
meet at Boston, in August. They met ; but the surveys 
requiring more time than had been supposed, and not 
being then completed, the commissioners again adjourned 
to meet at Providence, in the state of Rhode Island, in 
June next, when we may expect a final examination and 
decision. 

The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the sixth 
article of the treaty, met at Philadelphia, in May last, to 
examine the claims of British subjects for debts contract- 
ed before the peace, and still remaining due to them from 
citizens or inhabitants of the United States. Various 
causes have hitherto prevented any determinations ; but 
the business is now resumed, and doubtless will be prose- 
cuted without interruption. 

Several decisions on the claims of the citizens of the 
United States for losses and damages sustained by reason 
of irregular and illegal captures or condemnations of 
their vessels or other property, have been made by the 
commissioners in London, conformably to the seventh 
article of the treaty. The sums awarded by the commis- 
sioners have been paid by the British government ; a con- 
siderable number of other claims, where costs and dama- 
ges, and not captured property, were the only objects in 
question, have been decided by arbitration, and the sums 
awarded to the citizens of the United States have also 
been paid. 

The commissioners appointed, agreeably to the twenty- 
first article of our treaty with Spain, met at Philadelphia, 
in the summer past, to examine and decide on the claims 
of our citizens for losses they have sustained in conse- 
quence of their vessels and cargoes having been taken by 
the subjects of his Catholic majesty, during the late war 
between Spain and France. Their sittings have been 
interrupted, but are now resumed. 

The United States being obligated to make corapensa- 



44 THE TRUE AMERICAN, 

tion for the losses and damages sustained by British sub- 
jects, upon the award of the commissioners acting under 
the sixth article of the treaty with Great Britain, and for the 
losses and damages sustained by British subjects, by rea- 
son of the capture of their vessels and merchandise, taken 
within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, 
and brought into their ports, or taken by vessels origi- 
nally armed in ports of the United States, upon the awards 
of the commissioners, acting under the seventh article of 
the same treaty ; it is necessary that provision be made 
for fulfilling these obligations.' 

The numerous captures of American vessels by the 
cruisers of the French republic, and of some of those of 
Spain, have occasioned considerable expenses in making 
and supporting the claims of our citizens before their 
tribunals. The sums required for this purpose liave, in 
divers instances, been disbursed by the consuls of the 
United States. By means of the same captures, great 
numbers of our seamen have been thrown ashore in for- 
eign countries, destitute of all means of subsistence, and 
the sick, in particular, have been exposed to grievous suf- 
ferings. The consuls have, in these cases also, advanced 
money for their relief; for these advances they reasonably 
expect reimbursements from the United States. 

The consular act, relative to seamen, requires revision 
and amendment ; the provisions for their support in for- 
eign countries, and for their return, are found to be inad- 
equate and ineffectual. Another provision seems neces- 
sary to be added to the consular act ; some foreign ves- 
sels have been discovered sailing under the flag of the 
United States, and with forged papers ; it seldom happens 
that the consuls can detect this deception, because they 
have no authority to demand an inspection of the regis- 
ters and sea-letters. 

Gnitlcmen of the House of Representatives : 

It is my duty to recommend to your serious considera- 
tion those objects, which, by the constitution, are placed 
particularly within your sphere, the national debts and 
taxes. 

Since the decay of the feudal system, by which the 



Jefferson's inauguBal address. 45 

public defence was provided for chiefly at the expense of 
individuals, the system of loans has been introduced ; and 
as no nation can raise witliin the year, by taxes, sufficient 
sums for the defence and military operations in time of 
war, the sums loaned and debts contracted have necessa- 
rily become the subjects of what have been called fund- 
ing systems. The consequences arising from the contin- 
ual accumulation of public debts in other countries, ought 
to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in 
our own. The national defence must be provided for, as 
well as the support of government ; but both should be 
accomplished, as much as possible, by immediate taxes, 
and as little as possible by loans. 

The estimates for the service of the ensuing year will, 
by my direction, be laid before you. 

Gentlemen of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 

We are met together at a most interesting period. The 
situations of the principal powers of Europe are singular 
and portentous. Connected with some by treaties, and 
with all by commerce, no important event there can be 
indifferent to us. Such circumstances call with peculiar 
importunity, not less for a disposition to unite in all those 
measures on which the honor, safety, and prosperity of 
our country depend, than for all the exertions of wisdom 
and firmness. 

In all such measures, you may rely on my zealous and 
hearty concurrence. 



JEFFERSON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 4, 1801. 

Friends and Felloic-Citizcns : 

Called upon to undertake the duties of the first execu- 
tive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence 
of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here as- 
sembled, to express my grateful thanks for the favor with 



46 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

which they have been pleased to look towards me, to de- 
clare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my 
talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and aw- 
ful presentiments, which the greatness of the charge, and 
the weakness of my powers, so justly inspire. A rising 
nafion, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all 
the seas with the rich productions of their industry, en- 
gaged in commerce with nations who feel power and for- 
get right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach 
of mortal eye ; when I contemplate these transcendent 
objects, and see the honor, tlse happiness, and the hopes 
of this beloved country connnitted to the issue and the 
auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and 
humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. 
Utterly indeed should I despair, did not the presence of 
many whom I here see remind me that, in the other high 
authorities provided by our constitution, I shall find re- 
sources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which to 
rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who 
are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, 
and to those associated with you, I look with encourage- 
ment for that guidance and support which may enable us 
to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all em- 
barked, amid the conflicting elements of a troubled world. 
During the contest of opinion through which we have 
passed, the animation of discussion and of exertions has 
sometimes worn an aspect vvhicli might impose on stran- 
gers unused to think freely, and to speak and to write 
what they think ; but this being now decided by the voice 
of the nation, announced according to the rules of the 
constitution, all will of course arrange themselves under 
the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the 
common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred 
principle, that though the will of the majority is in all 
cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, nmst be reason- 
able ; that the minority possess their equal rights, which 
equal law must protect, and to violate, would be oppres- 
sion. Let us then, fellov.'-citizens, unite with one heart 
and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that 
harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even 
life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect, that, 



Jefferson's inattgural address. 47 

having banished from our land that religious intolerance 
under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have 
yet gained little, if we countenance a political intole- 
rance, as despotic, as wicked, and cnpable of as bitter and 
bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions 
of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of in- 
furiated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his 
long-lost liberty, it was not wonderfLd that the agitation 
of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful 
shore ; that this should be more felt and feared by some, 
and less by others ; that this should divide opinions as to 
measures of safety ; but every difference of opinion is 
not a difference of principle. We have called by different 
names brethren of the same principle. We are all repub- 
licans ; we are all federalists. If there be any among 
us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change 
its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monu- 
ments of the safety with which error of opinion may be 
tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know 
indeed that some honest men fear that a republican gov- 
ernment cannot be strong ; that this government is not 
strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full 
tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which 
has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and vis- 
ionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, 
may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I 
trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest 
government on earth. I believe it the only one where 
every man, at the call of the laws, would fly to the stan- 
dard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public 
order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said 
that man cannot be trusted with the government of him- 
self Can he then be trusted with the government of 
others ; or have we found angels in the forms of kings to 
govern him? Let history answer this question. 

Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our 
own federal and republican principles, our attachment to 
our union and representative government. Kindly sepa- 
rated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating 
havoc of one quarter of the globe ; too high-minded to 
endure the degradations of the others ; possessing a 



48 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

chosen country, with room enough for our descendants 
to the thousandth and thousandth generation ; entertain- 
mg a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own 
facuUies, to the acquisitions of our industry, to honor and 
confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from 
birth, but from our actions and their sense of them ; en- 
lightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and 
practised in various forms, yet all of them including 
honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of 
man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Provi- 
dence, which, by all its dispensations, proves that it de- 
lights in the happiness of man here, and his greater hap- 
piness hereafter ; with all these blessings, what more is 
necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? 
Still one thing more, fellow-citizens — a wise and frugal 
government, which shall restrain men from injuring one 
another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their 
own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not 
take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. 
This is the sum of good government, and this is neces- 
sary to close the circle of our felicities. 

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of 
duties which comprehend every thing dear and valuable 
to you, it is proper that you should understand what I 
deem the essential principles of our government, and 
consequently those which ought to shape its administra- 
tion. I will compress them within the narrowest compass 
they will bear, stating the general principles, but not all 
its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of 
whatever state or persuasion, religious or political ; peace, 
commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entan- 
gling alliances with none ; the support of the state govern- 
ments in all their rights, as the most competent adminis- 
trations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks 
against anti-republican tendencies ; the preservation of 
the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, 
as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety 
abroad ; a jealous care of the right of election by the 
people ; a mild and safe corrective of abuses, which are 
lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable 
remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the 



Jefferson's inaugural address. 49 

decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics^ 
from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle 
and immediate parent of despotism ; a well-disciplined 
militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments 
of war, till regulars may relieve them ; the supremacy of 
the civil over the military authority ; economy in the 
public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened ; the 
honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of 
the public faith ; encouragement of ag-riculture, and of 
commerce as its handmaid ; the diffusion of information, 
and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason ; 
freedom of religion ; freedom of the press ; and freedom 
of person, under the protection of the habeas corpus ; 
and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles 
form the bright constellation which has gone before us, 
and guided our steps through an age of revolution and 
reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our 
heroes have been devoted to their attainment : they should 
be the creed of our political faith ; the text of civil in- 
struction ; the touchstone by which to try the services 
of those we trust; and should we wander from them in 
moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our 
steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, 
liberty, and safety. 

I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have 
assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate 
offices to have seen the difficulties of this, the greatest of 
all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the 
lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the 
reputation and the favor which bring him into it. With- 
out pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in 
our first and great revolutionary character, whose pre- 
eminent services had entitled him to the first place in his 
country's love, and destined for him the fairest page in 
the volume of faithfid history, I ask so much confidence 
only as may give firmness and eftect to the legal admin- 
istration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through 
defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought 
wrong by those whose positions will not command a view 
of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own 
errors, which will never be intentional ; and your sup- 



60 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

port against the errors of others, who may condemn what 
they would not, if seen in all its parts. The approbation 
implied by your suffrage is a consolation to me for the 
past ; and my future solicitude will be, to retain the good 
opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to 
conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in 
my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and 
freedom of all. 

Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I 
advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from 
it whenever you become sensible how much better choices 
it is in your power to make. And may that infinite Power 
which rules the destinies of the universe, lead our coun- 
cils to Mdiat is best, and give them a favorable issue for 
your peace and prosperity. 

***** 9 ^9 ® ^^ * * 

December 8, 1801. 

Sir : The circumstances under which we find our- 
selves at this place rendering inconvenient the mode 
heretofore practised, of making by personal address the 
first communication between the legislative and executive 
branches, I have adopted that by message, as used on all 
subsequent occasions through the session. In doing this, 
T have had principal regard to the inconvenience of the 
legislature, to the economy of their time, to their relief 
from the embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects 
not yet fully before them, and to the benefits thence re- 
sulting to the public aflfairs. Trusting that a procedure 
founded in these motives will meet their approbation, I 
beg leave, through you, sir, to communicate the enclosed 
message, with the documents accompanying it, to the 
honorable the Senate, and pray you to accept, for your- 
self and them, the homage of my high respect and con- 
sideration. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Tlie Hon. the 
President of the Senate. 



jeperson's first annual message. 51 

JEFFERSON'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, 

DECEMBER 8, 1801. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, 

cmd House of Representatives : 

It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me that, 
on meeting the great council of our nation, I am able to 
announce to them, on grounds of reasonable certainty, 
that the wars and troubles which have for so many years 
afflicted our sister-nations, have at length come to an end, 
and that the communications of peace and commerce are 
once more opening among them. Whilst we devoutly 
return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been 
pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and 
forgiveness, we are bound, with peculiar gratitude, to be 
thankful to him that our own peace has been preserved 
through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted 
quietly to cultivate the earth, and to practise and improve 
those arts which tend to increase our comforts. The 
assurances, indeed, of friendly disposition, received from 
all the powers with whom we have principal relations, had 
inspired a confidence that our peace with them would not 
have been disturbed. But a cessation of irregularities 
which had affected the commerce of neutral nations, and 
of the irritations and injuries produced by them, cannot 
but add to this confidence, and strengthens, at the same 
time, the hope that wrongs committed on unoffending 
friends, under a pressure of circumstances, will now be 
reviewed with candor, and will be considered as founding 
just claims of retribution for the past, and new assurances 
for the future. 

Among our Indian neighbors, also, a spirit of peace 
and friendship generally prevails ; and I am happy to 
inform you that the continued efforts to introduce among 
them the implements and the practice of husbandry and 
of the household arts, have not been without success ; 
that they are becoming more and more sensible of the 
superiority of this dependence for clothing and subsist- 
ence, over the precarious resources of hunting and fish- 



€» THE TRUB AMERICAN. 

ing ; and already we are able to announce that, Instead 
of that constant diminution of their numbers, produced 
by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to 
experience an increase of population. 

To this state of general peace with which we have 
been blessed, one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least 
considerable of the Barbary states, had come forward 
with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, 
and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our failure 
to comply before a given day. The style of the demand ad- 
mitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates 
into the Mediterranean, with assurances to that power of 
our sincere desire to remain in peace ; but with orders 
to protect our commerce against the threatened attack. 
The measure was seasonable and salutary. The Bey had 
already declared war. His cruisers were out. Two had 
arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the Mediterranean 
was blockaded, and that of the Atlantic in peril. The 
arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger. One of the 
Tripolitan cruisers, having fallen in with and engaged 
the small schooner Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant 
Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger vessels, 
was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her men, with- 
out the loss of a single one on our part. The bravery 
exhibited by our citizens on that element will, I trust, be 
a testimony to the world that it is not the want of that 
virtue which makes us seek their peace, but a conscien- 
tious desire to direct the energies of our nation to the 
multiplication of the human race, and not to its destruc- 
tion. Unauthorized by the constitution, without the 
sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defence, 
the vessel, being disabled from committing further hosti- 
lities, was liberated with its crew. The legislature will 
doubtless consider whether, by authorizing measures of 
offence also, they will place our force on an equal footing 
with that of its adversaries. I communicate all material 
information on this subject, that, in the exercise of this 
important function confided by the constitution to the 
legislature exclusively, their judgment may form itself on 
a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of 
weight. 



Jefferson's first annual message. 53 

I wish I could say that our situation with all the other 
Barbary states was entirely satisfactory. Discovering 
that some delays had taken place in the performance of 
certain articles stipulated by us, I thought it my duty, by 
immediate measures for fulfilling them, to vindicate to 
ourselves the right of considering the effect of departure 
from stipulation on their side. From the papers which 
will be laid before you, you will be enabled to judge whe- 
ther our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at all the 
measure of their demands, or as guarding from the exer- 
cise of force our vessels within their power ; and to con- 
sider how far it will be safe and expedient to leave our 
affairs with them in their present posture. 

I lay before you the result of the census lately taken 
of our inhabitants, to a conformity with which we are 
now to reduce the ensuing ratio of representation and 
taxation. You will perceive that the increase of num- 
bers, during the last ten years, proceeding in geometrical 
ratio, promises a duplication in little more than twenty- 
two years. We contemplate this rapid growth, and the 
prospect it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries 
it may enable us to do to others in some future day, but 
to the settlement of the extensive country still remaining 
vacant within our limits, to the multiplication of men 
susceptible of happiness, educated in the love of order, 
habituated to self-government, and valuing its blessings 
above all price. 

Other circumstances, combined with the increase of 
numbers, have produced an augmentation of revenue 
arising from consumption, in a ratio far beyond that of 
population alone ; and, though the changes of foreign 
relations now taking place, so desirable for the world, 
may for a season affect this branch of revenue, yet, weigh- 
ing all probabilities of expense, as well as of income, 
there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may 
now safely dispense with all the internal taxes — compre- 
hending excise, stamps, auctions, licenses, carriages, and 
refined sugars ; to which the postage on newspapers may 
be added, to facilitate the progress of information ; and 
that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient 
to provide for the support of government, to pay the inte- 
5* 



64 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

rest of the public debts, and to discharge the principals 
within shorter periods than the laws of the general expect- 
ation had contemplated. War, indeed, and untoward 
events, may change this prospect of things, and call for 
expenses which the imposts could not meet. But sound 
principles will not justify our taxing the industry of our 
fellow-citizens to accumulate treasure for wars to happen 
we know not when, and which might not perhaps happen, 
but from the temptations offered by that treasure. 

These views, however, of reducing our burdens, are 
formed on the expectation that a sensible, and, at the 
same time, a salutary reduction may take place in our 
habitual expenditures. For this purpose, those of the 
civil government, the army, and navy, will need revisal. 
When we consider that this government is charged with 
the external and mutual relations only of these states ; 
that the states themselves have principal care of our per- 
sons, our property, and our reputation, constituting the 
great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whe- 
ther our organization is not too complicated, too expen- 
sive ; whether offices and officers have not been multiplied 
unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously to the service 
they were meant to promote. I will cause to be laid 
before you an essay towards a statement of those who, 
under public employment of various kinds, draw money 
from the treasury, or from our citizens. Time has not 
permitted a perfect enumeration, the ramifications of 
office being too multiplied and remote to be completely 
traced in a first trial. Among those who are dependent 
on executive discretion, I have begun the reduction of 
what was deemed necessary. The expenses of diplomatic 
agency have been considerably diminished. The inspect- 
ors of internal revenue, who were found to obstruct the 
accountability of the institution, have been discontinued. 
Several agencies, created by executive authority, on sala- 
ries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should 
suggest the expediency of regulating that power by law, 
so as to subject its exercises to legislative inspection and 
sanction. Other reformations of the same kind will be 
pursued with that caution which is requisite, in removing 
useless things, not to injure what is retained. But the 



Jefferson's first annual message. 55 

great mass of public offices is established by law, and 
therefore by law alone can be abolished. Should the le- 
gislature think it expedient to pass this roll in review, and 
try all its parts by the test of public utility, they may be 
assured of every aid and light which executive informa- 
tion can yield. Considering the general tendency to 
multiply offices and dependencies, and to increase expense 
to the ultimate term of burden which the citizen can 
bear, it behoves us to avail ourselves of every occasion 
which presents itself for taking off the surcharge ; that it 
never may be seen here that, after leaving to labor the 
smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, 
government shall itself consume the whole residue of what 
it was instituted to guard. 

In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted 
to our direction, it would be prudent to multiply barriers 
against their dissipation, by appropriating specific sums 
to every specific purpose susceptible of definition ; by 
disallowing all applications of money varying from the 
appropriation in object, or transcending it in amount ; by 
reducing the undefined field of contingencies, and thereby 
circumscribing discretionary powers over money ; and 
by bringing back to a single department all accountabili- 
ties for money, where the examinations may be prompt, 
efficacious, and uniform. 

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last 
year, as prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, 
as usual, be laid before you. The success which has at- 
tended the late sales of the public lands shows that, with 
attention, they may be made an important source of re- 
ceipt. Among the payments, those made in discharge of 
the principal and interest of the national debt, will show 
that the public faith has been exactly maintained. To 
these will be added an estimate of appropriations neces- 
sary for the ensuing year. This last will, of course, be 
effected by such modifications of the system of expense 
as you shall think proper to adopt. 

A statement has been formed by the Secretary of War, 
on mature consideration, of all the posts and stations 
where garrisons will be expedient, and of the number of 
men requisite for each garrison. The whole amount is 



56 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

considerably short of the present military establishment. 
For the surplus no particular use can be pointed out. 
For defence against invasion their number is as nothing ; 
nor is it conceived needful or safe that a standing army 
should be kept up in time of peace for that purpose. 
Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in 
our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade 
us, the only force which can be ready at every point, and 
competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring 
citizens as formed into a militia. On these, collected 
from the parts most convenient, in numbers proportioned 
to the invading foe, it is best to rely, not only to meet the 
first attack, but, if it threatens to be permanent, to main- 
tain the defence until regulars may be engaged to relieve 
them. These considerations render it important that we 
should, at every session, continue to amend the defects 
which from time to time show themselves in the laws for 
regulating the militia, until they are sufficiently perfect ; 
nor should we now or at any time separate until we can 
say we have done every thing for the militia which we 
could do were an enemy at our door. 

The provision of military stores on hand will be laid 
before you, that you may judge of the additions still re- 
quisite. 

With respect to the extent to which our naval prepara- 
tions should be carried, some difference of opinion may 
be expected to appear ; but just attention to the circum- 
stances of every part of the Union will doubtless recon- 
cile all. A small force will probably continue to be want- 
ed for actual service in the Mediterranean. Whatever 
annual sum beyond that you may think proper to appro- 
priate for naval preparations, would perhaps be better 
employed in providing those articles which may be kept 
without waste or consumption, and be in readiness when 
any exigency calls them into use. Progress has been 
made, as will appear by papers now communicated, in 
providing materials for seventy-four gun ships as directed 
by law. 

How far the authority given by the legislature for pro- 
curing and establishing sites for naval purposes has been 
perfectly understood and pursued in the execution, admits 



Jefferson's first annual message, 57 

of some doubt. A statement of the expenses already in- 
curred on that subject is now laid before you. I have, in 
certain cases, suspended or slackened these expenditures, 
that the legislature might determine whether so many 
yards are necessary as have been contemplated. The 
works at this place are among those permitted to go on ; 
and five of the seven frigates directed to be laid up, have 
been brought and laid up here, where, besides the safety 
of their position, they are under the eye of the executive 
administration, as well as of its agents, and where your- 
selves also will be guided by your own view in the legis- 
lative provisions respecting them which may from time to 
time be necessary. They are preserved in such condi- 
tion, as well the vessels as whatever belongs to them, as 
to be at all times ready for sea on a short warning. Two 
others are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have re- 
ceived the repairs requisite to put them also into sound 
condition. As a superintending officer will be necessary 
at each yard, his duties and emoluments, hitherto fixed by 
the executive, will be a more proper subject for legisla- 
tion. A communication will also be made of our pro- 
gress in the execution of the law respecting the vessels 
directed to be sold. 

The fortifications of our harbors, more or less ad- 
vanced, present considerations of great difficulty. While 
some of them are on a scale sufficiently proportioned to 
the advantages of their position, to the efficacy of their 
protection, and the importance of the points within it, 
others are so extensive, will cost so much in their first 
erection, so much in their maintenance, and require such 
a force to garrison them, as to make it questionable what 
is best now to be done. A statement of those commenced 
or projected, of the expenses already incurred, and esti- 
mates of their future cost, so far as can be foreseen, shall 
be laid before you, that you may be enabled to judge 
whether any attention is necessary in the laws respecting 
this subject. 

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, 
the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving 
when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection 
from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be 



58 THE TUUE AMERICAN. 

seasonably interposed. If, in the course of your observai- 
tions or inquiries, they should appear to need any aid 
within the limits of our constitutional powers, your sense 
of their importance is a sufficient assurance they will oc- 
cupy your attention. We cannot, indeed, but all feel an 
anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our car- 
rying trade will soon be placed. How far it can be re- 
lieved, otherwise than by time, is a subject of important 
consideration. 

The judiciary system of the United States, and espe- 
cially that portion of it recently erected, will of course 
present itself to the contemplation of Congress ; and that 
they may be able to judge of the proportion which the 
institution bears to the business it has to perform, I have 
caused to be procured from the several states, and now 
lay before Congress, an exact statement of all the causes 
decided since the first establishment of the courts, and of 
those which were depending when additional courts and 
judges were brought in to their aid. 

And while on the judiciary organization, it will be 
worthy your consideration, whether the protection of the 
inestimable institution of juries has been extended to all 
the cases involving the security of our persons and pro- 
perty. Their impartial selection also being essential to 
their value, we ought further to consider whether that is 
sufficiently secured in those states where they are named 
by a marshal depending on executive will, or designated 
by the court, or by officers dependent on them. 

I cannot omit recommending a revisal of the laws on 
the subject of naturalization. Considering the ordinary 
chances of human life, a denial of citizenship under a 
residence of fourteen years, is a denial to a great propor- 
tion of tliose who ask it ; and controls a policy pursued, 
from their first settlement, by many of these states, and 
still believed of consequence to their prosperity. And 
shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that 
hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended 
to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed hu- 
manity find no asylum on this globe ? The constitution, 
indeed, has wisely provided that, for admission to certain 
offices of important trust, a residence shall be required 



Jefferson's first annual message. 59 

sufficient to develop character and design. But might 
not the general character and capabilities of a citizen be 
safely communicated to everyone manifesting a bona fide 
purpose of embarking his life and fortunes permanently 
with us? with restrictions, perhaps, to guard against frau- 
dulent usurpation of our flag ; an abuse which brings so 
much embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen, and 
so much danger to the nation of being involved in war, 
that no endeavor should be spared to detect and suppress 
it. 

These, fellow-citizens, are the matters respecting the 
state of the nation which I have thought of importance 
to be submitted to your consideration at this time. Some 
others of less moment, or not yet ready for communica- 
tion, will be the subject of separate messages. I am hap- 
py in this opportunity of committing the arduous aff'airs 
of our government to the collected wisdom of the Union. 
Nothing shall be wanting on my part to inform, as far as 
in my power, the legislative judgment, nor to carry that 
judgment into faithful execution. The prudence and 
temperance of your discussions will promote, within your 
own walls, that conciliation which so much befriends 
rational conclusion ; and by its example will encourage 
among our constituents that progress of opinion which is 
tending to unite them in object and will. That all should 
be satisfied with any one order of things is not to be ex- 
pected ; but I indulge the pleasing persuasion that the 
great body of our citizens will cordially concur in honest 
and disinterested efforts, which have for their object to 
preserve the general and state governments in their con- 
stitutional form and equilibrium ; to maintain peace 
abroad, and order and obedience to the laws at home ; to 
establish principles and practices of administration favor- 
able to the security of liberty and property, and to reduce 
expenses to what is necessary for the useful purposes of 
government. 



60 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

MADISON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 4, 1809. 

Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered 
authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented, 
to express the profound impression made on me by the 
call of my country to the station, to the duties of which I 
am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanc- 
tions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceed- 
ing from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and 
virtuous nation, would, under any circumstances, have 
commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled 
me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Un- 
der the various circumstances which give peculiar solem- 
nity to the existing period, I feel that both the honor and 
the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly en- 
hanced. 

The present situation of the world is indeed without a 
parallel ; and that of our own country full of difficulties. 
The pressure of these too is the more severely felt, be- 
cause they have fallen upon us at a moment when the na- 
tional prosperity being at a height not before attained, 
the contrast resulting from the change has been rendered 
the more striking. Under the benign influence of our 
republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace 
with all nations, whilst so many of them were engaged in 
bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were 
enjoyed in an unrivalled growth of our faculties and re- 
sources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements 
of agriculture ; in the successful enterprises of commerce ; 
in the progress of manufactures and useful arts ; in the 
increase of the public revenue, and the use made of it in 
reducing the public debt; and in the valuable works and 
establishments every where mulliplyiug over the face of 
our land. 

It is a precious reflection that the transition from this 
prosperous condition of our country, to the scene which 
has for some time been distressing us, is not chargeable 
on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any invol- 



MADISON'e INAUQCRAli ADDRESS. 61 

nntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no pas- 
sions whicli trespass on the rights or repose of other na- 
tions, it has been the true glory of the United States to 
cultivate peace by observing justice ; and to entitle them- 
selves to the respect of the nations at war, by fulfilling 
their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impar- 
tiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of 
these assertions will not be questioned ; posterity, at least, 
will do justice to them. 

This unexceptionable course could not avail against the 
injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their 
rage against each other, or impelled by more direct 
motives, principles of retaliation have been mtroduccd, 
equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged 
law. How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued, 
in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext for 
them has been given by the United States, and of the fair 
and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of them, can- 
not be anticipated. Assuring myself that, under every 
vicissitude, the determined spirit and united councils of 
the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential 
interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other 
discouragement than what springs from my own inade- 
quacy to its high duties. If I do not sink imder the 
weight of this deep conviction, it is because I find some 
support in a consciousness of the purposes, and a confi- 
dence in the principles, which I bring with me into this 
arduous service. 

To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all na- 
tions having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sin- 
cere neutrality towards belligerent nations ; to prefer in 
all cases amicable discussion and reasonable accommoda- 
tion of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to 
arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partiali- 
ties, so degrading to all countries, and so baneful to free 
ones ; to foster a spirit of independence, too just to in- 
vade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, 
too liberal to indulge iniworthy prejudices ourselves, and 
too elevated not to look down upon them in others ; to 
hold the union of the states as the basis of their peace 
and happiness ; to support the constitution, which is tlio 




63 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in itg 
authorities ; to respect the rights and authorities reserved 
to the states and to the people, as equally incorporated 
with, and essential to the success of, the general system ; 
to avoid the slightest interference with the rights of con- 
science or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted 
from civil jurisdiction ; to preserve, in their full energy, 
the other salutary provisions in behalf of private and per- 
sonal rights, and of the freedom of the press ; to observe 
economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public 
resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; 
to keep within the requisite limits a standing military 
force, always remembering that an armed and trained 
militia is the firmest bulwark of republics — that without 
standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor 
with large ones safe ; to promote, by authorized means, 
improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures,, 
and to external as well as internal commerce ; to favor, in 
like manner, the advancement of science and the diffu- 
sion of information as the best aliment to true liberty ; to 
carry on the benevolent plans which have been so merito- 
riously applied to the conversion of our aboriginal neigh- 
bors from the degradation and wretchedness of savage 
life, to a participation of the improvements of which the 
human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized 
state : as far as sentiments and intentions such as these 
can aid the fulfilment of my duty, they will be a resource 
which cannot fail me. 

It is ray good fortune, moreover, to have the path in 
which I am to tread, lighted by examples of illustrious 
services, successfully rendered in the most trying difficul- 
ties, by those who have marched before me. Of those 
of my immediate predecessor it might least become me 
here to speak. I may, however, be pardoned for not sup- 
pressing the sympathy with which my heart is full, in the 
rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved 
country, gratefully bestowed for exalted talents, zealously 
devoted, through a long career, to the advancement of its 
highest interest and happiness. 

But the source to which I look for the aids which alone 
can supply my deficiencies, is in the well-tried intelligence 



Madison's first annual message. 63 

and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of 
those representing them in the best other departments 
associated in the care of the national interests. In these 
my confidence will under every difficulty be placed, next 
to that in which we have all been encouraged to feel in 
the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being 
whose power regulates tlie destiny of nations, whose bless- 
ings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising 
republic, and to whom we are bound to address our de- 
vout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent suppli- 
cations and best hopes for the future. 



MADISON'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, 

NOVEMBER 29, 1809. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 

At the period of our last meeting, I had the satisfac- 
tion of communicating an adjustment with one of the 
principal belligerent nations, highly important in itself, 
and still more so, as presaging a more extended accom- 
modation. It is with deep concern I am now to inform 
you, that the favorable prospect has been overclouded by 
a refusal of the British government to abide by the act 
of its minister plenipotentiary, and by its ensuing policy 
towards the United States, as seen through the communi- 
cations of the minister sent to replace him. 

Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of en- 
gagements formed by diplomatic functionaries, in cases 
where, by the terms of the engagements, a mutual ratifi- 
cation is reserved ; or where notice at the time may have 
been given of a departure from instructions ; or in extra- 
ordinary cases, essentially violating the principles of equi- 
ty : a disavowal could not have been apprehended in a 
case where no such notice or violation existed ; where 
no such ratification was reserved ; and, more especially, 



64 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

where, as is now in proof, an engagement, to be executed 
without any such ratification, was contemplated by the 
instructions given, and where it had, with good faith, been 
carried into immediate execution on the part of the Uni- 
ted States. 

These considerations not having restrained the British 
government from disavowing the arrangement, by virtue 
of which its orders in council were to be revoked, and 
the event authorizing the renewal of commercial inter- 
course having thus not taken place, it necessarily became 
a question of equal urgency and importance, whether the 
act prohibiting that intercourse was not to be considered 
as remaining in legal force. This question being, after 
due deliberation, determined in the affirmative, a procla- 
mation to that effect was issued. It could not but hap- 
pen, however, that a return to this state of things, from 
that which had followed an execution of the arrangement 
by the United States, would involve difficulties. With a 
view to diminish these as much as possible, the instruc- 
tions from the Secretary of the Treasury, now laid before 
you, were transmitted to the collectors of the several 
ports. If, in permitting British vessels to depart without 
giving bonds not to proceed to their own ports, it should 
appear that the tenor of legal authority has not been 
strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed to the anxious desire 
which was felt that no individuals should be injured by so 
unforeseen an occurrence : and I rely on the regard of 
Congress for the equitable interests of our own citizens, 
to adopt whatever further provisions may be found requi- 
site for a general remission of penalties involuntarily in- 
curred. 

The recall of the disavowed minister having been fol- 
lowed by the appointment of a successor, hopes were 
indulged that the new mission would contribute to allevi- 
ate the disappointment which had been produced, and to 
remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the 
good understanding of the two nations. It could not be 
doubted, that it would at least be charged with concilia- 
tory explanations of the steps which had been taken, and 
with proposals to be substituted for the rejected arrange- 
ment. Reasonable and universal as this expectation wa?, 



Madison's first annual message. 05 

it also has not been fulfilled. From the first official dis- 
closures of the new minister, it was found that he had re- 
ceived no authority to enter into explanations relative to 
either branch of the arrangement disavowed, nor any au- 
thority to substitute proposals, as to that branch which 
concerned the British orders in council. And finally, 
that his proposals with respect to the other branch, the 
attack on the frigate Chesapeake, were founded on a pre- 
sumption, repeatedly declared to be inadmissible by the 
United States, that the first step towards adjustment was 
due from them ; the proposals, at the same time, omitting 
even a reference to the officer answerable for the murder- 
ous aggression, and asserting a claim not less contrary to 
the British laws and British practice, than to the princi- 
ples and obligations of the United States. 

The correspondence between the Department of State 
and this minister will show how unessentially the features 
presented in its commencement have been varied in its 
progress. It will show, also, that, forgetting the respect 
due to all governments, he did not refrain from imputa- 
tions on this, which required that no further communica- 
tions should be received from him. The necessity of this 
step will be made known to his Britannic majesty, through 
the minister plenipotentiary of the United States in Lon- 
don. And it would indicate a want of the confidence 
due to a government which so well understands and ex- 
acts what becomes foreign ministers near it, not to infer 
that the misconduct of its own representative will be 
viewed in the same light in which it has been regarded 
here. The British government will learn, at the same 
time, that a ready attention will be given to communica- 
tions, through any channel which may be substituted. 
It will be happy, if the change in this respect should be 
accompanied by a favorable revision of the unfriendly 
policy which has been so long pursued towards the United 
States. 

With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses 
on our commercial rights have long been the subject of 
our just remonstrances, the posture of our relations does 
not correspond with the measures taken on the part of 
the United States to effect a favorable change. The re- 
6* 



66 THE TEUE AMERICAN. 

suit of the several communications made to her govern- 
ment, in pursuance of the authorities vested by Congress 
in the executive, is contained in the correspondeiice of 
our minister at Paris now laid before you. 

By some of the other belligerents, although professing 
just and amicable dispositions, injuries materially affect- 
ing our commerce have not been duly controlled or re- 
pressed. In these cases, the interpositions deemed proper 
on our part have not been omitted. But it well deserves 
the consideration of the legislature, how far both the safe- 
ty and honor of the American flag may be consulted, by 
adequate provision against that collusive prostitution of 
it by individuals, unworthy of the American name, which 
has so much favored the real or pretended suspicions, un- 
der which the honest commerce of their fellow-citizens 
has suffered. 

In relation to the powers on the coast of Barbary, noth- 
ing has occurred which is not of a nature rather to in- 
spire confidence than distrust, as to the continuance of 
the existing amity. With our Indian neighbors, the just 
and benevolent system continued towards them, has also 
preserved peace, and is more and more advancing habits 
favorable to their civilization and happiness. 

From a statement which will be made by the Secretary 
of War, it will be seen that the fortifications on our mari- 
time frontier are in many of the ports completed, affording 
the defence which was contemplated ; and that a further 
time will be required to render complete the works in the 
liarbor of New York, and in some other places. By the 
enlargement of the works, and the employment of a great- 
er number of hands at the public armories, the supply of 
small arms, of an improving quality, appears to be annu- 
ally increasing at a rate that, with those made on private 
contract, may be expected to go far towards providing for 
the public exigency. 

The act of Congress providing for the equipment of 
our vessels of war having been fully carried into execu- 
tion, I refer to the statement of the Secretary of the 
Navy for the information which may be proper on that 
subject. To that statement is added a view of the trans- 
fers of appropriations, authorized by the act of the ses- 



Madison's first annual message. 67 

sion preceding the last, and of the grounds on which the 
transfers were made. 

Whatever may be the course of your deliberations on 
the subject of our military establishments, I should fail 
in my duty in not recommending to your serious atten- 
tion the importance of giving to our militia, the great 
bulwark of our security and resource of our power, an 
organization the best adapted to eventual situations, for 
which the United States ought to be prepared. 

The sums which had been previously accumulated in 
the treasury, together with the receipts during the year 
ending on the 3-Jth of September last, (and amounting to 
more than nine millions of dollars,) have enabled us to 
fulfil all our engagements, and to defray the current 
expenses of government, without recurring to any loan. 
But the insecurity of our commerce, and the consequent 
diminution of the public revenue, will probably produce 
a deficiency in the receipts of the ensuing year, for which, 
and for other details, I refer to the statements which will 
be transmitted from the treasury. 

In the state which has been presented of our affairs 
with the great parties to a disastrous and protracted war, 
carried on iif a mode equally injurious and unjust to the 
United States as a neutral nation, the wisdom of the na- 
tional legislature will be again suunnoned to the import- 
ant decision on the alternatives before them. That these 
will be met in a spirit worthy the councils of a nation 
conscious both of its rectitude and of its rights, and 
careful as well of its honor as of its peace, I have an en- 
tire confidence. And that the result will be stamped by a 
unanimity becoming the occasion, and be supported by 
every portion of our citizens, with a patriotism enlight 
ened and invigorated by experience, ought as little to be 
doubted. 

In the midst of the wrongs and vexations experienced 
from external causes, there is much room for congratula- 
tion on the prosperity and happiness flowing from our sit- 
uation at home. The blessing of health has never been 
more universal. The fruits of the seasons, though in 
particular articles and districts short of their usual redun- 
dancy, are more than sufficient for our wants and our com- 



08 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

forts. The face of our country every where presents the 
evidence of laudable enterprise, of extensive capital, and 
of durable improvement. In the cultivation of the mate- 
rials, and the extension of useful manufactures, more espe- 
cially in the general application to household fabrics, we 
behold a rapid diminution of our dependence on foreign 
supplies. Nor is it unworthy of reflection, that this revo- 
lution in our pursuits and habits is in no slight degree a 
consequence of th.ose impolitic and arbitrary edicts, by 
which the contending nations, in endeavoring each of 
them to obstruct our trade with the other, have so far 
abridged our means of procuring the productions and 
manufactures, of which our own are now taking the place. 
Recollecting always, that, for every advantage which 
may contribute to distinguish our lot from that to which 
others are doomed by the unhappy spirit of the times, we 
are indebted to that Divine Providence whose goodness 
has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it 
becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore 
from the same Omnipotent Source a blessing on the con- 
sultations and measures about to be undertaken for the 
welfare of our beloved country. 



MONROE'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 5, 1817. 

I SHOULD be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply af- 
fected by the strong proof which my fellow-citizens have 
given me of their confidence, in calling me to the high 
office, whose functions I am about to assume. As the 
expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the 
public service, I derive from it a gratification, which those 
who are conscious of having done all that they could do 
to merit it, can alone feel. My sensibility is increased by 
a just estimate of the importance of the trust, and of the 
nature and extent of its duties ; with the proper discharge 
of which the highest interests of a great and free people 



Monroe's inaugural address. 69 

are intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, 
I cannot enter on tliese duties without great anxiety for tlie 
result. From a just responsibility I will never shrink ; caJ- 
cuiating with confidence, that in my best efforts to promote 
the public welfare, my motives will always be duly appre- 
ciated, and my conduct be viewed with that candor and 
indulgence which I have experienced in other stations. 

In commencing the duties of the chief executive office, 
it has been the practice of the distinguished men who 
have gone before me, to explain the principles which would 
govern them in their respective administrations. In fol- 
lowing their venerated example, my attention is naturally 
drawn to the great causes which have contributed, in a prin- 
cipal degree, to produce the present happy condition of 
the United States. They will best explain the nature of 
our duties, and shed much light on the policy which ought 
to be pursued in future. 

From the commencement of our revolution to the pre- 
sent day, almost forty years have elapsed, and from the 
establishment of this constitution, twenty-eight Through 
this whole term, the government has been what may em- 
phatically be called, self-government : and what has been 
the effect 1 To whatever object we turn our attention, 
whether it relates to our foreign or domestic concerns, we 
find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves in the excellence 
of our institutions. During a period fraught v/ith difficul- 
ties, and marked by very extraordinary events, the United 
States have flourished beyond example. Their citizens, 
individually, have been happy, and the nation prosperous. 

Under this constitution our commerce has been wisely 
regulated with foreign nations, and between the states; 
new states have been admitted into our Union ; our terri- 
tory has been enlarged by fair and honorable treaty, and 
with great advantage to the original states; the states re- 
spectively protected by the national government, under a 
mild paternal system, against foreign dangers, and enjoy- 
ing within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of 
power, a just proportion of the sovereignty, have improv- 
ed their police, extended their settlements, and attained a 
strength and maturity which are the best proofs of whole- 
some laws well administered. And if we look to the 



70 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

condition of individuals, what a proud spectacle does it 
exhibit? On whom has oppression fallen in any quarter 
of our Union ? Who has been deprived of any right of 
person or property ? Who restrained from offering his 
vows, in the mode which he prefers, to the Divine Author 
of his being? It is well known that all these blessings 
have been enjoyed in their fullest extent ; and I add, with 
peculiar satisfaction, that there has been no example of a 
capital punishment being inflicted on any one for the crime 
of high treason. 

Some who might admit the competency of our govern- 
ment to these beneficent duties, might doubt it in trials 
which put to the test its strength and efficiency as a mem- 
ber of the great community of nations. Here, too, ex- 
perience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its 
favor. Just as this constitution was put into action, sev- 
eral of the principal states of Europe had become much 
agitated, and some of them seriously convulsed. Destruc- 
tive wars ensued, which have of late only been termina- 
ted. In the course of these conflicts, the United States 
received great injury from several of the parties. It was 
their interest to stand aloof from the contest, to demand 
justice from the party committing the injury, and to cul- 
tivate by a fair and honorable conduct, the friendship of 
all. War became at length inevitable, and the result has 
shown that our government is equal to that, the greatest 
of trials under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of 
the virtue of the people, and of the heroic exploits of the 
army, the navy, and the militia, I need not speak. 

Such, then, is the happy government under which we 
live; a government adequate to every purpose for which 
the social compact is formed ; a government elective in 
all its branches, under which every citizen may, by his 
merit, obtain the highest trust recognized by the con- 
stitution ; which contains within it no cause of discord ; 
none to put at variance one portion of the community 
with another ; a government which protects every citizen 
in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect 
the nation against injustice from foreign powers. 

Other considerations of the highest importance admo- 
nish us to cherish our union, and to cling to the govern- 



Monroe's inaugukal address. 71 

itient which supports it. Fortunate as we arc in our po- 
litical institutions, we have not been less so in other cir- 
cumstances on which our prosperity and happiness essen- 
tially depend. Situated within the temperate zone, and 
extending through many degrees of latitude along the 
Atlantic, the United Slates enjoy all the varieties of cli- 
mate, and every production incident to that portion of the 
globe. Penetrating, internally, to the great lakes and be- 
yond the resources of the great rivers which communicate 
through our whole interior, no country was ever happier 
with respect to its domain. Blessed too with a fertile soil, 
our produce has always been very abundant, leaving even 
in years the least favorable, a surplus for the wants of 
our fellow-men in other countries. Such is our peculiar 
felicity, that there is not a part of our Union that is not 
particularly interested in preserving it. The great agri- 
cultural interest of our nation prospers under its protec- 
tion. Local interests are not less fostered by it. Our 
fellow-citizens of the north, engaged in navigation, find 
great encouragement in being made the favored carriers 
of the vast productions of the other portions of the Uni- 
ted States, while the inhabitants of these are amply re- 
compensed, in their turn, by the nursery for seamen and 
naval force, thus formed and reared up for the support of 
our common rights. Our manufacturers find a generous 
encouragement by the policy which patronizes domestic 
industry ; and the surplus of our produce, a steady and pro- 
fitable market by local wants in less favored parts at home. 

Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our 
country, it is the interest of every citizen to maintain it. 
What are the dangers which menace us ? If any exist, 
they ought to be ascertained and guarded against. 

In explaining my sentiments on this subject, it may 
be asked, what raised us to the present happy state? 
How did we accomplish the revolution ? How remedy 
the defects of the first instrument of our Union, by 
infusing into the national government sufficient power 
for national purposes, without impairing the just rights 
of the states, or affecting those of individu;ils? How 
sustain and pass with glory through the late war ? The 
government has been in the hands of the people. To the 



72 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

people, therefore, and to the faithful and nble depositaries 
of their trust, is the credit due. Had the people of the 
United States been educated in different principles, had 
they been less intelligent, less independent, or less virtu- 
ous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the 
same steady and consistent career, or been blessed with the 
same success ? While then the constituent body retains 
its present sound and healthful state, every thing will be 
safe. They will choose competent and faithful represen- 
tatives for every department. It is only when the people 
become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into 
a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sove- 
reignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an 
usurper soon found. The people themselves become the 
willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. 
Let us then look to the great cause, and endeavor to pre- 
serve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitu- 
tional measures, promote intelligence among the people, 
as the best means of preserving our liberties. 

Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of atten- 
tion. Experiencing the fortune of other nations, the 
United States may again be involved in war, and it may 
in that event be the object of the adverse party to over- 
set our government, to break our union, and demolish us 
as a nation. Our distance from Europe, and the just, 
moderate, and pacific policy of our government may form 
some security against these dangers, but they ought to be 
anticipated and guarded against. Many of our citizens 
are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them 
are in a certain degree dependent on their prosperous 
state. Many are engaged in the fisheries. These inte- 
rests are exposed to invasion in the wars between other 
powers, and we should disregard the faithful admonitions 
of experience if we did not expect it. We must support 
our rights, or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our 
liberties. A people who fail to do it, can scarcely be 
said to hold a place among independent nations. National 
honor is national property of the highest vallie. The 
sentiment in the mind of every citizen, is national strength. 
It ought therefore to be cherished. 

To secure us against these dangers, our coast and 



.Mc».\{{ai:\s ixauijUkai. abuuhss!. 73 

inland frontiers should be fortified, our army and navy 
regulated upon just principles as to the force of each, be 
kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed on the 
best practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in 
such a state of defence as to secure our cities and inte- 
rior from invasion, will be attended mih expense, but the 
work when finished will be permanent, 'and it is fair to 
presume that a single campaign of invasion, by a naval 
force, superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land 
troops, would expose us to a greater expense, without 
taking into the estimate the loss of property and distress 
of our citizens, than would be suflicient for this great 
work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate, 
but adequate to the necessary purposes. The former to 
garrison and preserve our fortifications, and to meet the 
first invasions of a foreign foe ; and while constituting 
the elements of a greater force, to preserve the science, 
as well as all the necessary implements of war, in a state to 
be brought into activity in the event of war. The latter, 
retained within the limits proper in state of peace, might 
aid in maintaining the neutrality of the United States 
with dignity, in the wars of other powers, and in saving 
the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time 
of war, with the enlargement of which the great naval 
resources of the coimtrv render it susceptible, and which 
shoidd be duly fostered in time of peace, it would contri- 
bute essentially, both as an auxiliary of defence and as a 
powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the calamities 
of v/ar, and to bring the war to a speedy and honorable 
termination. 

But it ought always to be held prominently in view, 
that the safety of these states, and of every thing dear to 
a free people, must depend in an eminent degree on tlie 
militia. Invasions may be made too formidable to be re- 
sisted by any land and naval force, which it would com- 
port, either with tlie principles of our government, or the 
circumstances of the United States to maintain. In such 
cases, recourse must be had to the great body of the peo- 
ple, and in a manner to produce the best effect. It is of 
the highest importance, therefore, that they be so orga- 
nized and trained as to be prepared for any emergency. 
7 



74 "EHE TKLE AftlERlCAN. 

The arrangement --should be such as to put at the com- 
mand of the government the ardent patriotism and youth- 
ful vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just 
principles, it cannot be oppressive. It is the crisis which 
makes the pressure, and not the laws which provide a 
remedy for it. ; This arrangement should be formed, too, 
in time of pea<:e, tcrbe the better prepared for war. With 
such an organization of such a people, the United States 
have nothing to dread from foreign invasion. At its 
approach, an overwhelming force of gallant men might 
always be put in motion. 

Other interests of high importance will claim attention ; 
among which, the improvement of our country by roads 
and canals, proceeding always with a constitutional sanc- 
tion, holds a distinguished place. By thus facilitating 
the intercourse between the states, we shall add much to 
the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much 
to the ornament of the country, and what is of greater 
importance, we shall shorten distances, and by making 
each part more accessible to and dependent on the other, 
we shall bind the union more closely together. Nature 
has done so much for us by intersecting the country with 
so many great rivers, bays, and lakes, approaching from 
distant points so near to each other, that the inducement 
to complete the work seems to be peculiarly strong. A 
more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than is 
exhibited within the limits of the United States — a ter- 
ritory so vast, and advantageously situated, containing 
objects so grand, so useful, so happily connected in all 
their parts. 

Our manufactures will, likewise, require the systematic 
and fostering care of the government. Possessing, as we 
do, all the raw materials, the fruit of our own soil and 
industry, we ought not to depend, in the degree we have 
done, on supplies from other countries. While we are 
thus dependent, the sudden event of war, unsought and 
unexpected, cannot fail to plunge us into the most serious 
difficulties. It is important, too, that the capital which 
nourishes our manufactures should be domestic, as its in- 
fluence in that case, instead of exhausting, as it may do 
in foreign hands, would be felt advantageously on agri- 



mon'roe's inaugural address. 75 

culture, and every other branch of industry. Equally 
important is it to provide at home a market for our raw 
materials, as by extending the competition, it will enhance 
the price, and protect the cultivator against the casualties 
incident to foreign markets. 

With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly 
relations, and to act with kindness and liberality in all 
our transactions. Equally proper is it to persevere in our 
efforts to extend to them the advantages of civilization. 

The great amount of our revenue, and the flourishing 
state of the treasury are a full proof of the competency 
of the national resources for any emergency, as they are 
of the willingness of our fellow-citizens to bear the burdens 
which the public necessities require. The vast amount 
of vacant lands, the value of which daily augments, 
forms an additional resource of great extent and duration. 
These resources, besides accomplishing every other ne- 
cessary purpose, puts it completely in the power of the 
United States to discharge the national debt at an early 
period. Peace is the best time for improvement and pre- 
parations of every kind : it is in peace that our commerce 
flourishes most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that 
the revenue is most productive. 

The executive is charged, oflicially, in the departments 
under it, with the disbursement of the public money, and 
is responsible for the faithful application of it to the pur- 
poses for which it is raised. The legislature is the watch- 
ful guardian over the public purse. It is its duty to see 
that the disbursement has been honestly made. To meet 
the requisite responsibility, every facility should be afford- 
ed to the executive, to enable it to bring the public agents 
intructed with the public money, strictly and promptly to 
account. Nothing should be presumed against them : 
but if, with the requisite facilities, the public money is 
suffered to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will 
not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing ef- 
fect be confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and 
want of tone in the administration, which will be felt by 
the whole community. I shall do all that I can to secure 
economy and fidelity in this important branch of the 
administration, and I doubt not that the legislature will 



76 THR Tr.rc amehicax. 

perform its duty witli equal zeal. A thorough examina- 
tion should be regularly made, and I wiii promote it. 

It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the dis- 
charge of these duties at a time when the United States 
are blessed with peace. It is a state most consistent with 
their prosperity and happine&'s. It wUl be my sincere 
desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the executive, 
on just principles with all nations, claiming nothing un- 
reasonable of any, and rendering to each what is its due. 

Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmo- 
ny of opinion which pervades our Union. Discord does 
not belong to our system. Union is recommended, as 
well by the free and benign principles of our government, 
extending its blessings to every individual, as by the other 
eminent advantages attending it. The American people 
have encountered together great dangers, and sustained 
severe trials with success. They constitute one great 
family with a common interest. Experience has enlight- 
ened us on some questions of essential importance to the 
country. The progress lias been slow, dictated by a just 
reflection, aud a faithful regard to every interest connect- 
ed with it. To promote this harmony, in accordance 
with the principles of our republican government, and in 
a manner to give them the most complete effect, and to 
advance, in all other respects, the best interests of our 
country, will be the object of my constant and zealous 
exertions. 

Never did a government commence under auspices so 
favorable, nor ever was success so complete. If we 
look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, 
we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic ; of 
a people so prosperous and happy. In contemplating 
what we have still to perform, the heart of every citizen 
must expand with joy, when he reflects how near our go- 
vernment has approached to perfection ; that in respect 
to it we have no essential improvement to make ; that 
the great object is to preserve it in the essential principles 
and features whicli characterize it, and that that is to be 
done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds 
of the people ; and, as a security against foreign dangers, 
to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the 



Monroe's first anntal mkssaoe. 77 

support of our independence, our rights and liberties. If 
we persevere in the career in which we have advanced so 
far, and in the path already traced, we cannot fail, under 
the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high des- 
tiny which seems to await us. 

In the administration of the illustrious men who have 
preceded me in this high station, with some of whom I 
have been connected by the closest ties from early life, 
examples are presented which will always be found highly 
instructive and useful to their successors. From these I 
shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they 
may afford. Of my immediate predecessor, under whom 
so important a portion of this great and successful expe- 
riment has been made, I shall be pardoned for expressing 
ray earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retire- 
ment the affections of a grateful country, the best reward 
of exalted talents and the most faithful and meritorious 
services. Relying on the aid to be derived from the other 
departments of government, I enter on the trust to which 
I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens, 
with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that he will be 
graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which 
he has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor. 

MONROE'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, 

DECEMBER 3, 1817. 

FeUow-Citizpns of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 
At no period of our political existence had we so much 
cause to felicitate ourselves at the prosperous and happy 
condition of our country. The abundant fruits of the 
earth have filled it with plenty. An extensive and profit- 
able commerce has greatly augmented our revenue. The 
public credit has attained an extraordinary elevation. Our 
preparations for defence, in case of future wars, from 
which, by the experience of all nations, we ought not ex- 
pect to be exempted, are advancing, under a well-digested 



78 Tlir, TUUE AAIERICAN. 

system, with all the despatch which so important a work 
will admit. Our free government, founded on the inte- 
rests and affections of the people, has gained, and is daily 
gaining strength. Local jealousies are rapidly yielding 
to more generous, eidarged, and enlightened views of na- 
tional policy. For advantages so numerous and highly 
important, it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledg- 
ments to that Omnipotent Being, from whom they are 
derived, and in unceasing prayer that he will endow us 
with virtue and strength to maintain and hand them down, 
in their utmost purity, to our latest posterity. 

I have the satisfaction to inform you, that an arrange- 
ment, which had been commenced by my predecessor, with 
the British government, for the reduction of the naval force, 
by Great Britain and the United States, on the lakes, has 
been concluded ; by which it is provided, that neither 
party shall keep in service on lake Champlain more than 
one vessel; on lake Ontario, more than one; on lake 
Erie and the upper lakes, more than two ; to be armed, 
each with one cannon only, and that all the other armed 
vessels of both parties, of which an exact list is inter- 
changed, shall be dismantled. It is also agreed, that the 
force retained shall be restricted in its duty to the inter- 
nal purposes of each party ; and that the arrangement 
shall remain in force until six months shall have expired 
after notice having been given by one of the parties to 
the other of its desire that it should terminate. By this 
arrangement, useless expense on both sides, and what is 
of greater importance, the danger of collision between 
armed vessels in those inland waters, which was great, 
is prevented. 

I have the satisfaction also to state, that the commis- 
sioners under the fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, to 
whom it was referred to decide to which party the several 
islands in the bay of Passamaquoddy belonged, under the 
treaty of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, 
have agreed in a report, by which all the islands in the pos- 
session of each party before the late war have been decreed 
to it. The commissioners acting under the other articles 
of the treaty of Ghent, for the settlement of the bounda- 
ries, liave also been engaged in the discharge of their 



Monroe's first annual message. 79 

respective duties, but have not yet completed tlieni. The 
difference which arose between the two governments, 
under the treaty, respecting the right of the United States 
to take and cure fish on the coast of the British provin- 
ces, north of our limits, which had been secured by the 
treaty of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, 
is still in negotiation. The proposition made by this go- 
vernment, to extend to the colonies of Great Britain the 
principle of the convention of London, by which the com- 
merce between the ports of the United States and British 
ports of Europe had been placed on a footing of equali- 
ty, has been declined by the British government. This 
subject having been thus amicably discussed between the 
two governments, and it appearing that the British go- 
vernment is unwilling to depart from its present regula- 
tions, it remains for Congress to decide whether they will 
make any other regulations in consequence thereof, for 
the protection and improvement of our navigation. 

The negotiation with Spain, for spoliations on our com- 
merce, and the settlement of boundaries, remains essen- 
tially in the state it held in the communications that were 
made to Congress by my predecessor. It has been evi- 
dently the policy of the Spanish government to keep the 
negotiation suspended, and in this the United States have 
acquiesced, from an amicable disposition towards Spain, 
and in the expectation that her government would, from 
a sense of justice, finally accede to such an arrangement 
as would be equal between the parties. A disposition 
has been lately shown by the Spanish government to move 
in the negotiation, which has been met by this govern- 
ment, and should the conciliatory and friendly policy 
which has invariably guided our councils, be reciproca- 
ted, a just and satisfactory arrangement may be expected. 
It is proper, however, to remark that no proposition has 
yet been made from which such a result can be presumed. 

It was anticipated, at an early stage, that the contest 
between Spain and the colonics would become highly in- 
teresting to the United States. It was natural that our 
citizens should sympathize in events which affected their 
neighbors. It seemed probable, also, that the prosecution 
of the conflict, along our coast, and in contiguous conn- 



80 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tries, would occasionally interrupt our commerce, and 
otherwise affect the persons and property of our citizens. 
These anticipations have been realized. Such injuries 
have been received from persons acting under tlie autho- 
rity of both the parties, and for which redress has, in 
some instances, been withheld. Through every stage of 
the conflict, the United States have maintained an impar- 
tial neutrality, giving aid to neither of the parties in men, 
money, ships, or munitions of war. They have regarded 
the contest not in the light of an ordinary insurrection 
or rebellion, but as a civil war between parties nearly 
equal, having, as to neutral powers, equal rights. Our 
ports have been open to both, and every article the fruit 
of our soil, or of the industry of our citizens, which ei- 
ther was permitted to take, has been equally free to the 
other. Should the colonies establish their independence, it 
i.> proper now to state that this government neither seeks 
nor would accept from them any advantage in commerce 
or otherwise, which will not be equally open to all other 
nations. The colonies will in that event become inde- 
pendent states, free from any obligation to, or connection 
with us, which it may not then be their interest to form 
on a basis of fair reciprocity. 

In the summer of the present year, an expedition was 
set on foot against East Florida, by persons claiming to 
act under the authority of some of the colonies, who took 
possession of Amelia Island, at the mouth of St. Mary's 
river, near the boundary of the state of Georgia. As the 
province lies eastward of the Mississippi, and is bounded 
by the United States and the ocean on every side, and 
has been a subject of negotiation with the government 
of Spain, as an indemnity for losses by spoliation, or in 
exchange of territory of equal value, westward of the 
Mississippi, a fact well known to the world, it excited 
surprise that any countenance should be given to this 
measure by any of the colonies. As it would be difficult 
to reconcile it with the friendly relations existing between 
the United States and the colonies, a doubt was enter- 
tained whether it had been authorized by them, or any 
of them. This doubt has gained strength, by the cir- 
cumstances which have unfolded themselves in the prose- 



Monroe's first annual message. 81 

ciition of the enterprise, Avhich liave marked it as a mere 
private unautliorized adventure. Projected and com- 
menced with an incompetent force, reliance seems to 
have Vjeen placed on what might be drawn, in defiance of 
our laws, from within our limits ; and of late, as their 
resources have failed, it has assumed a more marked cha- 
racter of unfriendliness to us, the island being made a 
channel for the illicit introduction of slaves from Africa 
into the United States, an asylum for fugitive slaves from 
the neighboring states, and a port lYs: smuggling of every 
kind. 

A similar establishment vv'as made, at an earlier period, 
by persons of the same description in the Gulf of Mexi- 
co, at a place called Galveston, within the limits of the 
United States, as we contend, under the cession of Louis- 
iana. This enterprise has been marked in a more sig- 
nal manner by all the objectionable circumstances which 
characterized the other, and more particularly by the 
equipment of privateers which have annoyed our com- 
merce, and by smuggling. These establishments, if ever 
sanctioned by any authority whatever, which is not be- 
lieved, have abused their trust and forfeited all claim to con- 
sideration. A just regard for the rights and interests of 
the United States required that they should be suppressed, 
and orders have accordingly been issued to that effect. 
The imperious considerations which produced this mea- 
sure will be explained to the parties whom it may in any 
degree concern. 

To obtain correct information on every subject in which 
the United States are interested ; to inspij-e just sentiments 
in all persons in authority, on either side, of our friendly 
disposition, so far as it may comport with an impartial 
neutrality, and to secure proper respect to our commerce 
iu every port, and from every flag, it has been thought 
proper to send a ship of war, with three distinguished 
citizens along the southern coast, with instructions to 
touch at such ports as they may find most expedient for 
these purposes. With the existing authorities, with those 
in the possession of, and exercising the sovereignty, must 
the communication be held ; from them alone can redress 
for past injuries, committed by persons acting under them 



02 



THE TRUE AMERICAN. 



be obtained ; by them alone can the commission of the 
like in future be prevented. 

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have 
experienced no essential change since the last session. 
In our intercourse with each, due attention continues to 
be paid to the protection of our commerce, and to every 
other object in which the United States are interested. 
A strong hope is entertained, that by adhering to the 
maxims of a just, candid, and friendly policy, we may 
long preserve amicable relations with all the powers of 
Europe, on conditions advantageous and honorable to our 
country. 

With the Barbary states and the Indian tribes, our pa- 
cific relations have been preserved. 

In calling your attention to the internal concerns of 
our country, the view which they exhibit is peculiarly 
gratifying. The payments which have been made into 
the treasury show the very productive state of the public 
revenue. After satisfying the appropriations made by law 
for the support of the civil government and of the mili- 
tary and naval establishments, embracing suitable provi- 
sion for fortification and for the gradual increase of 
the navy, paying the interest of the public debt, and ex- 
tinguishing more than eighteen millions of the principal, 
within the present year, it is estimated that a balance of 
more than six millions of dollars will remain in the trea- 
sury on the first day of January, applicable to the current 
service of the ensuing year. 

The payments into the treasury during the year one 
thousand eight hundred and seventeen, on account of im- 
ports and tonnage, resulting principally from duties which 
have accrued in the present year, may be fairly estimated 
at twenty millions of dollars ; internal revenues, at two 
millions five hundred thousand ; public lands, at one mil- 
lion five hundred thousand ; bank dividends and inciden- 
tal receipts, at five hundred thousand ; making, in the 
whole, twenty-four millions and five hundred thousand 
dollars. 

The annual permanent expenditure for the support of 
the civil government, and of the army and navy, as now 
established by law, amounts to eleven millions eight hun- 



Monroe's first annual messaue. 88 

dred thousand dollars ; and for the sinking fund, to ten 
millions; making, in the whole, twenty-one millions eicrht 
hundred thousand dollars; leaving an annual excess of 
revenue, beyond the expenditure, of two millions seven 
hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of the balance esti- 
mated to be in the treasury on the 1st day of January, 
one thousand eight hundred and eighteen. 

In the present state of the treasury, the whole of the 
Louisiana debt may be redeemed in the year 1819 ; after 
which, if the public debt continues as it now is, above 
par, there will be annually about five millions of the sink- 
ing fund unexpended, until the year 1825, when the loan 
of 1812, and the stock created by funding treasury notes, 
will be redeemable. 

It is also estimated that the Mississippi stock will be 
discharged during the year 1819, from the proceeds of 
the public lands assigned to that object ; after which the 
receipts from those lands will annually add to the public 
revenue the sum of one million five hundred thousand 
dollars, making the permanent annual revenue amount to 
twenty-six millions of dollars, and leaving an annual ex- 
cess of revenue after the year 1819, beyond the perma- 
nent authorized expenditure, of more than four millions 
of dollars. 

By the last returns to the department of war, the mili- 
tia force of the several states may be estimated at eight 
hundred thousand men, infantry, artillery, and cavalry. 
Great part of this force is armed, and measures are taken 
to arm the whole. An improvement in the organization 
and discipline of the militia, is one of the great objects 
which claim the unremitted attention of Congress. 

The regular force amounts nearly to the number 
required by law, and is stationed along the Atlantic and 
inland frontiers. 

Of the naval force, it has been necessary to maintain 
strong squadrons in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

From several of the Indian tribes, inhabiting the coun- 
try bordering on Lake Erie, purchases have been made 
of lands, on conditions very favorable to the United States, 
and, it is presumed, not less so to the tribes themselves. 



84 THii TlltX A.MKraCAX. 

By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate re- 
servations, has been extinguished to the whole of the land 
within the state of Ohio, and to a great part of that in 
Michigan territory, and of the state of Indiana. From the 
Cherokee tribe a tract has been purchased in the state of 
Georgia, and an arrangement made, by which, in exchange 
for lands beyond the Mississippi, a great part, if not the 
whole of the land belonging to the tribe, eastward of that 
river, in the states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Ten- 
nessee, and in the Alabama territory, will soon be ac- 
quired. By these acquisitions, and others that may rea- 
sonably be expected soon to follow, we shall be enabled 
to extend our settlements from the inhabited parts of the 
state of Ohio, along Lake Eric, into the Michigan terri- 
tory, and to connect our settlements by degrees, through 
the state of Indiana and the Illinois territory, to that of 
Missouri. A similar and equally advantageous effect will 
soon be produced to the south, through the whole extent 
of the states and territory which border on the waters 
emptying into the Mississippi and the Mobile. In this 
progress, which the rights of nature demand, and nothings* 
can prevent, marking a growth rapid and gigantic, it is 
our duty to make new efforts for the j)reservation, im- 
provement, and civilization of the native inhabitants. 
The hunter state can exist only in the vast uncultivated 
desert. It yields to the more dense and compact form 
and greater force of civilized population ; and of right it 
ought to yield, for the earth was given to mankind to sup- 
port the greatest number of which it is capable, and no 
tribe or people have a right to withhold from the wants 
of others more than is necessary for their OAvn support 
and comfort. It is gratifying to know that the reserva- 
tion of land made by the treaties with the tribes on Lake 
Erie, were made with a view to individual ownership 
among them, and to the cultivation of the soil by all, and 
that an annual stipend has been pledged to supply their 
other wants. It will merit the consideration of Congress, 
whether other provisions, not stipulated by the treaty, 
ought to be made for these tribes, and for the advance- 
ment of the liberal and humane policy of the United 
States towards all the tribes within our "limits, and more 



MONROE S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 85 

particularly for their improvement in the arts of civilized 
life. 

Among the advantages incident to these purchases, and 
to those which have preceded, the security which may 
thereby be afforded to our inland frontier is peculiarly 
important. With a strong barrier, consisting of our own 
people thus planted on the lakes, the Mississippi and the 
Mobile, with the protection to be derived from the regu- 
lar force, Indian hostilities, if they do not altogether 
cease, will henceforth lose their terror. Fortifications in 
those quarters to any extent will not be necessary, and the 
expense attending them may be saved. A people accus- 
tomed to the use of fire-arms only, as the Indian tribes 
are, will shun even moderate works which are defended 
by cannon. Great fortifications will therefore be requi- 
site only in future along the coast, and at some points in 
the interior connected with it. On these will the safety 
of towns and the commerce of our rivers, from the bay 
of Fundy to the Mississippi, depend. On these, there- 
fore, should the utmost attention, skill and labor be be- 
stowed. 

A considerable and rapid augmentation in the value 
of all the public lands, proceeding from these and other 
obvious causes, may henceforward be expected. The dif- 
ficulties attending early emigrations will be dissipated even 
in the most remote parts. Several new states have been 
admitted into our Union to the west and south, and terri- 
torial governments, happily organized, established over 
every other portion in which there is vacant land for sale. 
In terminating Indian hostilities, as must soon be done, 
in a formidable shape at least, the emigration, which has 
heretofore been great, will probably increase, and the de- 
maud for land, and the augmentation in its value, be in 
like proportion. The great increase of our population 
throughout the Union will alone produce an important 
effect, and in no quarter will it be so sensibly felt as in 
those in contemplation. The public lands are a public 
stock, which ought to be disposed of to the best advan- 
tage for the nation. The nation should, therefore, derive 
the profit proceeding from the continual rise in their val- 
ue. Every encouragement should be given to the emi- 
" 8 ^ 



86 THE TRUE AMEBICAX. 

grants, consistent with a fair competition between them ; 
but that competition should operate in the first sale to the 
advantage of the nation rather than of individuals. Great 
capitalists will derive all the benefit incident to their su- 
perior wealth, under any mode of sale which may be 
adopted. But if, looking forward to the rise in the value 
of the public lands, they should have the opportunity of 
amassing, at a low price, vast bodies in their hands, the 
profit will accrue to them, and not to the public. They 
would also have the power, in that degree, to control the 
emigration and settlement in such a manner as their opin- 
ion of their respective interests might dictate. I submit 
the subject to the consideration of Congress, that such 
further provision may be made of the sale of the public 
lands, with a view to the public interest, should any be 
deemed expedient, as in their judgment may be best adapt- 
ed to the object. 

When we consider the vast extent of territory within 
the United States, the great amount and value of its pro- 
ductions, the connection of its parts, and other circum- 
stances on which their prosperity and happiness depend, 
we cannot fail to entertain a high sense of the advantage 
to be derived from the facility which may be afforded in 
the intercourse between them, by means of good roads 
and canals. Never did a country of such vast extent 
offer equal inducements to improvements of this kind, nor 
ever were consequences of such magnitude involved in 
them. As this subject was acted on by Congress at the 
last session, and there may be a disposition to revive it at 
present, I have brought it into view for the purpose of 
communicating my sentiments on a very important cir- 
cumstance connected with it, with that freedom and can- 
dor which a regard for the public interest and a proper 
respect for Congress require. A difference of opinion 
has existed from the first formation of our constitution to 
the present time, among our most enlightened and virtu- 
ous citizens, respecting the right of Congress to establish 
such a system of improvement. Taking into view the 
trust with which I am now honored, it would be improper, 
after what has passed, that this discussion should be re- 
vived with an nncertaintv of mv opinion respecting the 



Monroe's first annual MicsdAuE 87 

right. Disregarding early impressions, I have bestowed 
on the subject all the deliberation which its great impor- 
tance, and a just sense of my duty, required, and the re- 
sult is a settled conviction in my mind that Congress do 
not possess the right. It is not contained in any of the 
specified powers granted to Congress, nor can I consider 
it incidental to, or a necessary mean, viewed on the most 
liberal scale, for carrying into effect any of the powers 
which are specifically granted. In communicating this 
result, I cannot resist the obligation which I feel, to sug- 
gest to Congress the propriety of recommending to the 
states an adoption of an amendment to the constitution, 
which shall give to Congress the right in question. In 
cases of doubtful construction, especially of such vital 
interest, it comports with the nature and origin of our re- 
publican institutions, and will contribute much to pre- 
serve them, to apply to our constituents for an explicit 
grant of the power. We may confidently rely, that if it 
appears to their satisfaction that the power is necessary, 
it will be granted. 

In this case, I am happy to observe, that experience 
has afforded the most ample proof of its utility, and that 
the benign spirit of conciliation and harmony, which now 
manifests itself throughout our Union, promises to such 
a recommendation the most prompt and favorable result. 
I think proper to suggest, also, in case this measure is 
adopted, that it be recommended to the states to include 
in the amendment sought, a right in Congress to insti- 
tute, likewise, seminaries of learning, for the all-impor- 
tant purpose of diffusing knowledge among our fellow- 
citizens throughout the United States. 

Our manufactures will require the continued atten- 
tion of Congress. The capital employed in them is con- 
siderable, and the knowledge required in the machinery 
and fabric of all the most useful manufactures is of great 
value. Their preservation, which depends on due en- 
couragement, is connected with the high interests of the 
nation. 

Although the progress of the public buildings has been 
as favorable as circumstances have permitted, it is to be 
regretted the capitol is not yet in a state to receive you 



88 TllK TRUE AMERICAN, 

There is good cause to presume that the two wings, the 
only parts as yet commenced, will be prepared for that 
purpose the next session. The time seems now to have 
arrived, when this subject may be deemed worthy of the 
attention of Congress, on a scale adequate to national 
purposes. The completion of the middle building will 
be necessary to the convenient accommodation of Con- 
gress, of the committees, and various officers belonging 
to it. It is evident that the other public buildings are 
altogether insufficient for the accommodation of the seve- 
ral executive departments ; some of whom are much 
crowded, and even subject to the necessity of obtaining 
it in private buildings, at some distance from the head of 
the department, and with inconvenience to the manage- 
ment of the public business. Most nations have taken 
an interest and a pride in the improvement and ornament 
of their metropolis, and none were more conspicuous 
in that respect than the ancient republics. The policy 
which dictated the establishment of a permanent resi- 
dence for the national government, and the spirit in which 
it was commenced and has been prosecuted, show that 
such improvement was thought worthy the attention of 
this nation. Its central position, between the northern 
and southern extremes of our Union, and its approach to 
the west, at the head of a great navigable river, which 
interlocks with the western waters, prove the wisdom of 
the councils which established it. 

Nothing appears to be more reasonable and proper, 
than that convenient accommodation should be provided, 
on a well-digested plan, for the heads of the several de- 
partments, and for the attorney-general ; and it is believed 
that the public ground in the city, applied to these 
objects, will be found amply sufficient. I submit this 
subject to the consideration of Congress, that such pro- 
vision may be made in it, as to them may seem proper. 

In contemplating the happy situation of the United 
States, our attention is drawn, with peculiar interest, to 
the surviving officers and soldiers of our revolutionary 
army, who so eminently contributed, by their services, to 
lay its foundation. Most of those very meritorious citi- 
zens have paid the debt of nature and gone to repose. It 



MONROES FinST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 89 

is believed, that among the survivors there are some not 
provided for by existing laws, who are reduced to indi- 
gence, and even to real distress. These men have a 
claim on the gratitude of their country, and it will do 
honor to their country to provide for them. The lapse 
of a few years more, and the opportunity will be forever 
lost; indeed, so long already has been the interval, that 
the number to be benefitted by any provision which may 
be made, will not be great. 

It appearing in a satisfactory manner that the revenue 
arising from imposts and tonnage, and from the sale of 
public lands, will be fully adequate to the support of the 
civil government, of the present military and naval esta- 
blishments, including the annual augmentation of the lat- 
ter to the extent provided for, to the payment of the in- 
terest on the public debt, and to the extinguishment of it 
at the times authorized, without the aid of the internal 
taxes, I consider it my duty to recommend to Congress 
their repeal. To impose taxes when the public exigen- 
cies require them, is an obligation of the most sacred 
character, especially with a free people. The faithful fulfil- 
ment of it is among the highest proofs of their virtue and ca- 
pacity for self-government. To dispense with taxes, when 
it may be done with perfect safety, is equally the duty of 
their representatives. In this instance, we have the satis- 
faction to know that they were imposed when the demand 
was imperious, and have been sustained with exemplary 
fidelity. I have to add, that however gratifying it may be 
to me, regarding the prosperous and happy condition of 
our country, to recommend the repeal of these taxes at 
this time, I shall, nevertheless, be attentive to events, and 
should any future emergency occur, be not less prompt 
to suggest such measures and burdens as may then be 
requisite and proper. 
8* 



90 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

J. a. ADAMS'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 4, 1825. 

In compliance with a usage coeval with tlie existence 
of our federal constitution, and sanctioned by the exam- 
ple of my predecessors in the career upon which I am 
about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your pre- 
sence, and in that of Heaven, to bind myself, by the so- 
lemnities of a religious obligation, to the faithful perform- 
ance of the duties allotted to me, in the station to which 
I have been called. 

In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which 
I shall be governed in the fulfilment of those duties, 
my first resort will be to that constitution, which I shall 
swear, to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect, 
and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the 
powers and prescribes the duties of the executive magis- 
trate ; and, in its first words, declares the purposes to 
which these, and the whole action of the government, in- 
stituted by it, should be invariably and sacredly devoted — 
to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to the people of this Union, in their successive 
generations. Since the adoption of this social compact, 
one of these generations has passed away. It is the work 
of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most 
eminent men who contributed to its formation, through a 
most eventful period in the annals of the world, and 
through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental 
to the condition of associated man, it has not disappointed 
the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors 
of their age and nation. It has promoted the lasting 
welfare of that country, so dear to us all ; it has, to an 
extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured 
the freedom and happiness of this people. We now re- 
ceive it as a precious inheritance from those to whom we 
are indebted for its establishment, doubly bound by the 
examples they have left us, and by the blessings which 



J. Q. ADAM8'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 91 

we have enjoyed, as the fruits of their labors, to transmit 
the same, unimpaired, to the succeeding generations. 

In the compass of thirty-six years, since this great na- 
tional covenant was instituted, a body of laws enacted 
under its authority, and in conformity with its provisions, 
has unfolded its powers, and carried into practical opera- 
tion its effective energies. Subordinate departments have 
distributed the executive functions in their various rela- 
tions to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, 
and to the military force of the Union by land and sea. 
A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has expound- 
ed the constitution and the laws; settling, in harmonious 
coincidence with the legislative will, numerous weighty 
questions of construction which the imperfection of hu- 
man language had rendered unavoidable. The year of 
jubilee since the first formation of our Union has just 
elapsed ; that of the declaration of independence is at 
hand. The consummation of both was effected by this 
constitution. Since that period, a population of four 
millions has multiplied to twelve. A territory, bounded by 
the Mississippi, has been extended from sea to sea. New 
states have been admitted to the Union, in numbers nearly 
equal to those of the first confederation. Treaties of 
peace, amity, and commerce, have been concluded with 
the principal dominions of the earth. The people of 
other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, not by 
conquest but by compact, have been united with us in the 
participation of our rights and duties, of our burdens 
and blessings. The forest has fallen by the axe of our 
woodsman; the soil has been made to teem by the tillage 
of our farmers ; our commerce has whitened every ocean. 
The dominion of man over physical nature has been ex- 
tended by the invention of our artists. Liberty and law 
have marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human 
association have been accomplished as effectively as 
under any other government on the globe ; and at a cost, 
little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditures 
of other nations in a single year. 

Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition 
under a constitution founded upon the republican princi- 
ple of equal rights. To admit that this picture has its 



d2 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

shades, is but to say that it is still the condition of men 
upon earth. From evil, physical, moral and political, it 
is not our claim to be exempt. We have suffered some- 
times by the visitation of Heaven, through disease ; often 
by the wrongs and injustices of other nations, even to the 
extremities of war ; and lastly, by dissentions among our- 
selves — dissentions, perhaps, inseparable from the enjoy- 
ment of freedom, but which have more than once appeared 
to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and, with it, the 
overthrow of all the enjoyments of our present lot, and 
all our earthly hopes of the future. The causes of these 
dissentions have been various, founded upon differences 
of speculation in the theory of republican government; 
upon conflicting views of policy, in our relations with 
foreign nations ; upon jealousies of partial and sectional 
interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions, 
which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain. 

It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to 
me, to observe that the great result of this experiment 
upon the theory of human rights has, at the close of that 
generation by which it was formed, been crowned with 
success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its 
founders. Union, justice, tranquillity, the common de- 
fence, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty, all 
have been promoted by the government under which we 
have lived. Standing at this point of time ; looking back 
to that generation which has gone by, and forward to that 
which is advancing, we may at once indulge in grateful 
exultation and in cheering hope. From the experience of 
the past, we derive instructive lessons for the future. Of 
the two great political parties which have divided the 
opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the 
just will now admit that both have contributed splendid 
talents, spotless integrity, ardent patriotism and disinter- 
ested sacrifices, to the formation and administration of this 
government ; and that both have required a liberal indul- 
gence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The 
revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at 
the moment when the government of the United States 
first went into operation under this constitution, excited 
a collision of sentiment.^ and of sympathies, which kin- 



J. Q. A1>AMS'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 98 

died all the passions, and embittered the conflict of par- 
ties, till the nation was involved in war, and the Union 
was shaken to its centre. This time of trial embraced a 
period of five-and-twenty years, during which the policy 
of the Union, in its relations with Europe, constituted 
the principal basis of our political divisions, and the most 
arduous part of the action of our federal government. 
With the catastrophe in which the wars of the French 
revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace 
with Great Britain, this baneful weed of party strife was 
uprooted. From that time, no difference of principle, 
connected either with the theory of government, or with 
our intercourse with foreign nations has existed, or been 
called forth in force sufficient to sustain a continued com- 
bination of parties, or give more than wholesome anima- 
tion to public sentiment or legislative debate. Our po- 
litical creed is, without a dissenting voice that can be 
heard, that the will of the people is the source, and the 
happiness of the people the end, of all legitimate govern- 
ment upon earth. That the best security for the benefi- 
cence, and the best guaranty against the abuse of power, 
consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of 
popular elections. That the general government of the 
Union, and the separate governments of the states, are 
all sovereignties of legitimated powers ; fellow-servants 
of the same masters, uncontrolled within their respective 
spheres, uncontrollable by encroachments upon each 
other. That the firmest security of peace is the pre- 
paration during peace of the defences of war. That a 
rigorous economy, and accountability of public expendi- 
tures, should guard against the aggravation, and alleviate, 
when possible, the burden of taxation. That the military 
should be kept in strict subordination to the civil power. 
That the freedom of the press and of religious opinion 
should be inviolate. That the policy of our country is 
peace, and the ark of our salvation, union, are articles 
of faith upon which we are all agreed. If there have 
been those who doubted whether a confederated represen- 
tative democracy were a government competent to the 
wise and orderly management of the common concerns 
of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled. If 



94 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

there have been projects of partial confederacies to be 
erected upon the ruins of the Union, they have been 
scattered to the vi^inds. If there have been dangerous 
attachments to one foreign nation, and antipathies against 
another, they have been extinguished. Ten years of 
peace, at home and abroad, have assuaged the animosities 
of political contention, and blended into harmony the 
most discordant elements of public opinion. There still 
remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of pre- 
judice and passion, to be made by the individuals through- 
out the nation, who have heretofore followed the standard 
of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant 
of rancor against each other ; of embracing as country- 
men and friends ; and of yielding to talents and virtue 
alone, that confidence which, in times of contention for 
principle, was bestowed only upon those who bore the 
badge of party communion. 

The collisions of party spirit, which originate in specu- 
lative opinions, or in different views of administrative poli- 
cy, are in their nature transitory. Those which are found- 
ed on geographical divisions, adverse interests of soil, 
climate, and modes of domestic life, are more permanent, 
and therefore perhaps more dangerous. It is this which 
gives inestimable value to the character of our govern- 
ment, at once federal and national. It holds out to us a 
perpetual admonition to preserve alike, and with equal 
anxiety, the rights of each individual state in its own 
government, and the rights of the whole nation in that of 
the Union. Whatever is of domestic concealment, un- 
connected with the other members of the Union, or with 
foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of 
the state governments. Whatsoever directly involves the 
rights and interests of the federative fraternity, or of for- 
eign powers, is of the resort of this general government. 
The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, 
though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail. 
To respect the rights of the state governments is the in- 
violable duty of that of the Union ; the government of 
every state will feel its own obligation to respect and pre- 
serve the rights of the whole. The prejudices every where 
too commonly entertained against distant strangers are 



J. Q. ADAMs's INAUGUHAL ADDRESS. 95 

worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are al- 
layed by the composition and functions of the great na- 
tional councils annually assembled from all quarters of the 
Union at this place. Here the distinguished men from 
every section of our country, while meeting to deliberate 
upon the great interests of those by whom they are depu- 
ted, learn to estimate the talents, and do justice to the 
virtues of each other. The harmony of the nation is 
promoted, and the whole Union is knit together by the 
sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social inter- 
course, and the ties of personal friendship, formed be- 
tween the representatives of its several parts, in the per- 
formance of their service at this metropolis. 

Passing from this general review of the purposes and 
injunctions of the federal constitution, and their results, 
as indicating the first traces of the path of duty in the dis- 
charge of my public trust, I turn to the administration of 
my immediate predecessor, as the second. It has passed 
away in a period of profound peace : how much to the 
satisfaction of our country, and to the honor of our 
country's name, is known to you all. The great features 
of its policy, in general concurrence with the will of the 
legislature, have been — to cherish peace while preparing 
for defensive war ; to yield exact justice to other nations, 
and maintain the rights of our own ; to cherish the prin- 
ciples of freedom and of equal rights, wherever they were 
proclaimed ; to discharge with all possible promptitude the 
national debt ; to reduce within the narrowest limits of 
efficiency the military force ; to improve the organization 
and discipline of the army ; to provide and sustain a 
school of military science ; to extend equal protection to 
all the great interests of the nation ; to promote the civil- 
ization of the Indian tribes ; and to proceed in the great 
system of internal improvements within the limits of the 
constitutional power of the Union. Under the pledge of 
these promises, made by that eminent citizen, at the time 
of his first induction to this office, in his career of eight 
years, the internal taxes have been repealed ; sixty mil- 
lions of the public debt have been discharged ; provision 
has been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and 
indigent among the surviving warriors of the revolution; 



96 THE TnUE AMEFilCAN. 

the regular armed force has been reduced, and its consti- 
tution revised and perfected ; the accountability for the 
expenditures of public moneys has been made more effect- 
ive ; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our 
boundary has been extended to the Pacific ocean ; the in- 
dependence of the southern nations of this hemisphere 
has been recognized, and recommended by example and 
by counsel to the potentates of Europe ; progress has been 
made in the defence of the country by fortifications, and 
the increase of the navy — towards the effectual suppres- 
sion of the African traffic in slaves — in alluring the abori- 
ginal hunters of our land to the cultivation of the soil and 
of the mind — in exploring the interior regions of the 
Union, and in preparing, by scientific researches and sur- 
veys, for the further application of our national resources 
to the internal improvement of our country. 

In this brief outline of the promise and performance 
of my immediate predecessor, the line of duty for his 
successor is clearly delineated. To pursue to their con- 
summation those purposes of improvement in our com- 
mon condition, instituted or recommended by him, will 
embrace the whole sphere of my obligations. To the 
topic of internal improvement, emphatically urged by him 
at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar satisf;iction. It 
is that from which I am convinced that the unborn mil- 
lions of our posterity, who are in future ages to people 
this continent, will derive their most fervent gratitude to 
the founders of the Union ; that in which the beneficent 
action of its government will be most deeply felt and ac- 
knowledged. The magnificence and splendor of their 
public works are among the imperishable glories of the 
ancient republics. The roads and aqueducts of Rome 
have been the admiration of all after-ages, and have sur- 
vived thousands of years, after all her conquests have 
been swallowed up in despotism, or become the spoil of 
barbarians. Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with 
regard to the powers of Congress for legislation upon 
objects of this nature. The most respectful deference is 
due to doubts, originating in pure patriotism, and sus- 
tained by venerated authority. But nearly twenty years 
have passed since the construction of the first national 



J. Q. ADAM3 S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 97 

road was commenced. The authority for its construc- 
tion was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of 
our countrymen has it proved a benefit ? To what single 
individual has it ever proved an injury? Repeated, libe- 
ral and candid discussions in the legislature have concil- 
iated tiie sentiments, and approximated the opinions of 
enlightened minds, upon the question of constitutional 
power. I cannot but hope that, by the same process of 
friendly, patient, and persevering deliberation, all con.sti- 
tutional objections will ultimately be removed. The ex- 
tent and limitation of the powers of the general govern- 
ment, in relation to this transcendently important inte- 
rest, will be settled and acknowledged to the common 
satisfaction of all ; and every speculative scruple will be 
solved by a practical public blessing. 

Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar 
circumstances of the recent elections, which have result- 
ed in affording me the opportunity of addressing you at 
this time. You have heard the exposition of the princi- 
ples which will direct me in the fulfilment of the high 
and solemn trust imposed upon me in this station. Less 
possessed of your confidence in advance than any of my 
predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the prospect that 
I shall stand, more and oftener, in need of your indul- 
gence. Intentions, upright and pure ; a heart devoted to 
the welfare of our country, and the unceasing applica- 
tion of the faculties allotted to me to her service, are all 
the pledges that I can give to the faithful performance of 
tlie arduous duties I am to undertake. To the guidance 
of the legislative councils ; to the assistance of the exe- 
cutive and subordinate dep^rtments ; to the friendly co- 
operation of the respective state governments ; to the 
candid and liberal support of the people, so far as it may 
be deserved by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for 
whatever success may attend my public service : and 
knowing that, except the Lord keep the city, the watch- 
man waketh but in vain, with fervent supplications for his 
favor, to his overruling providence I commit, with hum- 
ble but fearless confidence, my own fate and the future 
destinies of my country. 
9 



9S THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

.1. a. ADAMS'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, 

DECEMBER 6, 1825. 

To the Senate, and 

House of Representatives of the United States : 

In taking a general survey of the concerns of our be- 
loved country, with reference to subjects interesting to 
the common welfare, the first sentiment which impresses 
itself upon the mind, is of gratitude to the Omnipotent 
Disposer of all good, for the continuance of the signal 
blessings of his providence, and especially for that health 
which, to an unusual extent, has prevailed within our bor- 
ders ; and for that abundance which, in the vicissitudes 
of the seasons, has been scattered with profusion over our 
land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him the glory, that 
we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of his hand in 
peace and tranquillity — in peace with all the other nations 
of the earth, in tranquillity among ourselves. There has, 
indeed, rarely been a period in the history of civilized 
man, in which the general condition of the Christian na- 
tions has been marked so extensively by peace and pros- 
perity. 

Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, 
has enjoyed ten years of peace, during which all her gov- 
ernments, whatever the theory of their constitutions may 
have been, are successively taught to feel that the end of 
their institutions is the happiness of the people, and that 
the exercise of power among men can be justified only 
by the blessings it confers upon those over whom it is 
extended. 

During the same period, our intercourse with all those 
nations has been pacific and friendly ; it so continues. 
Since the close of your late session, no material varia- 
tion has occurred in our relations with any one of them. 
In the commercial and navigation system of Great Britain, 
important changes of municipal regulations have recently 
been sanctioned by the acts of parliament, the effect of 
which upon the interests of other nations, and particu- 
larly upon ours, has not yet been fully developed. In the 



J. Q. AUAMs'ti riKST ANNUAL MEsiSAUE. 99 

recent renewal of the diplomatic missions, on both sides, 
between the two governments, assurances have been 
given and received of the continuance and increase of 
the mutual confidence and cordiality by which the adjust- 
ment of many points of difference has already been effect- 
ed, and which affords the surest pledge for the ultimate 
satisfactory adjustment of those which still remain open, 
or may hereafter arise. 

The policy of the United States, in their commercial 
intercourse with other nations, has always been of the 
most liberal character. In the mutual exchange of their 
respective productions, they have abstained altogether 
from prohibitions ; they have interdicted themselves the 
power of laying taxes upon exports, and whenever they 
have favored their own shipping, by special preferences 
or exclusive privileges in their own ports, it has been 
only with a view to countervail similar favors and exclu- 
sions granted by the nations with whom we have been 
engaged in traffic, to their own people or shipping, and to 
the disadvantage of ours. Immediately after the close of 
the last war, a proposal was fairly made by the act of Con- 
gress of the 3d March, 1S15, to all maritime nations, to 
lay aside the system of retaliating restrictions and exclu- 
sions, and to place the shipping of both parties to the 
common trade on a footing of equality in respect to the 
duties of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially 
and successively accepted by Great Britain, Sweden, the 
Netherlands, the Hanseatic cities, Prussia, Sardinia, the 
Duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was also adopted, 
under certain modifications, in our late commercial con- 
vention with France. And by the act of Congress of the 
8th of January, 1824, it has received a new confirmation 
with all the nations who had acceded to it, and has been 
offered again to all those who are or may hereafter be will- 
ing to abide in reciprocity by it. But all these regula- 
tions, whether established by treaty or by municipal 
enactments, are still subject to one important restriction. 

The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and 
impost, is limited to articles of the growth, produce, or 
manufacture of the country to which the vessel belongs, 
or to such articles as are most universally shipped from 



100 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

lier ports. It will deserve the serious consideration of 
Congress, whether even this remnant of restriction may 
not be safely abandoned, and whether the general tender 
of equal competition, made in the act of 8th January, 
1824, may not be extended to include all articles of mer- 
chandise not prohibited, of what country soever they may 
be the produce or manufacture. Propositions to this 
effect have already been made to us by more than one Eu- 
ropean government, and it is probable that if once esta- 
blished by legislation or compact with any distinguished 
maritime state, it would recommend itself, by the experi- 
ence of its advantages, to the general accession of all. 

The convention of commerce and navigation between 
the United States and France, concluded on the 24th of 
June, 1822, was, in the understanding and intent of both 
parties, as appears upon its face, only a temporary ar- 
rangement of the points of difference between them of 
the most immediate and pressing urgency. It was limit- 
ed, in the first instance, to two years from the first of 
October, 1822, but with a proviso, that it should further 
continue in force till the conclusion of a general and de- 
finitive treaty of commerce, unless terminated by a notice 
'six months in advance, of either of the parties to the 
other. Its operation, so far as it extended, has been mu- 
tually advantageous ; and it still continues in force, by 
common consent. But it left unadjusted several objects 
of great interest to the citizens and subjects of both coun- 
tries, and particularly a mass of claims, to considerable 
amount, of citizens of the United States upon the govern- 
ment of France, of indemnity for property taken or de- 
stroyed, under circumstances of the most aggravated and 
outrageous character. In the long period during which 
continued and earnest appeals have been made to the 
equity and magnanimity of France, in behalf of those 
claims, their justice has not been, as it could not be, de- 
nied. It was hoped that the accession of a new sovereign 
to the throne, would have afforded a favorable opportu- 
nity for presenting them to the consideration of his go- 
vernment. They have been presented and urged, hither- 
to, without effect. The repeated and earnest representa- 
tions of our minister at the court of France, remains ag 



J. Q.. AOAMS S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 101 

yet even without an answer. Were the demands of na- 
tions upon the justice of each other susceptible of adju- 
dication by the decision of an impartial tribunal, those to 
whom I now refer would long since have been settled, 
and adequate indemnity would have been obtained. There 
are large amounts of similar claims upon the Nether- 
lands, Naples, and Denmark. For those upon Spain, 
prior to 1819, indemnity was, after many years of patient 
forbearance, obtained, and those of Sweden have been 
lately compromised by a private settlement, in which the 
claimants themselves have acquiesced. The governments 
of Denmark and of Naples have been recently reminded 
of those yet existing against them ; nor will any of them 
be forgotten while a hope may be indulged of obtaining 
justice, by the means within the constitutional power of 
the executive, and without resorting to those means of 
self-redress, which, as well as the time, circumstances, 
and occasion, which may require them, are within the 
exclusive competency of the legislature. 

It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear 
witness to the liberal spirit with which the republic of 
Colombia has made satisfaction for well-established claims 
of a similar character. And among the documents now 
communicated to Congress, will be distinguished a treaty 
of commerce and navigation with that republic, the rati- 
fications of which have been exchanged since the last re- 
cess of the legislature. The negotiation of similar trea- 
ties with all the independent South American states, has 
been contemplated, and may yet be accomplished. The 
basis of them all, as proposed by the United States, has 
been laid in two principles ; the one, of entire and un- 
qualified reciprocity ; the other, the mutual obligation of 
the parties to place each other permanently on the footing 
of the most favored nation. These principles are, indeed, 
indispensable to the effectual emancipation of the Ameri- 
can hemisphere from the thraldom of colonizing monopo- 
lies and exclusions — an event rapidly realizing in the pro- 
gress of human affairs, and which the resistance still op- 
posed in certain parts of Europe to the acknowledgment 
of the Southern American republics as independent 
states, will, it is believed, contribute more cfl'ectually to 
9* 



102 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

accomplish. The time has been, and that not remote, 
when some of these states might, in their anxious desire 
to obtain a nominal recognition, have accepted of a nomi- 
nal independence, clogged with burdensome conditions, 
and exclusive commercial privileges, granted to the nation 
from which they have separated, to the disadvantage of 
all others. They now are all aware that such conces- 
sions to any European nation would be incompatible with 
that independence which they have declared and main- 
tained. 

Among the measures which have been suggested to 
them by the new relations with one another, resulting 
from the recent changes in their condition, is that of as- 
sembling at the Isthmus of Panama, a Congress, at which 
each of them should be represented, to deliberate upon 
objects important to the welfare of all. The republics 
of Colombia, of Mexico, and of Central America, have 
already deputed plenipotentiaries to such a meeting, and 
they have invited the United States to be also represented 
there by their ministers. The invitation has been accept- 
ed, and ministers on the part of the United States will 
be commissioned to attend at those deliberations, and to 
take part in them, so far as it may be compatible with 
that neutrality from which it is neither our intention nor 
the desire of the American states that we should depart. 

The commissioners under the seventh article of the 
treaty of Ghent have so nearly completed their arduous 
labors, that, by the report recently received from the agent 
on the part of tlic United States, there is reason to ex- 
pect that the commission will be closed at their next ses- 
sion, appointed for the 22d of May, of the ensuing year. 

The other commission appointed to ascertain the in- 
demnities due for slaves carried away from the United 
States, after the close of the late war, have met with some 
difficulty which has delayed their progress in the incjuiry. 
A reference has been made to the British government on 
the subject, Avliich, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten 
the decision of the commissioners, or serve as a substi- 
tute for it. 

Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by 
the constitution, are tliose of establishing uniform laws 



J. Q. ADAMs's rmST ANNIJAI- MESSAGE. 103 

Oil the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United 
States ; and for providing for organizing, arming, and dis- 
ciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them 
as may be employed in the service of the United States. 
The magnitude and complexity of the interests affected 
by legislation upon these subjects, may account for the 
fact, that long and often as both of them have occupied 
the attention, and animated the debates of Congress, no 
systems have yet been devised for fulfilling, to the satis- 
faction of the community, the duties prescribed by these 
grants of power. To conciliate the claim of the indivi- 
dual citizen to the enjoyment of personal liberty, with the 
effective obligation of private contracts, is the difficult 
problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are 
objects of the deepest interest to society ; affecting all 
that is precious in the existence of multitudes of persons, 
many of them in the classes essentially dependent and 
helpless; of the age requiring nurture, and of the sex 
entitled to protection from the free agency of the parent 
and the husband. The organization of the militia is yet 
more indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is 
only by an effective militia that we can at once enjoy the 
repose of peace, and bid defiance to foreign aggression; 
it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed na- 
tion, standing in perpetual panoply of defence, in the pre- 
sence of all tlie other mtions of the earth. To this end, 
it would be necessary, if possible, so to shape its organi- 
zation, as to give it a more united and active energy. There 
are laws for establishing a uniform militia throughout 
the United States, and for arming and equipping its whole 
body. But it is a body of dislocated members, without 
the vigor of unity, and having little of uniformity but 
the name. To infuse into this most important institution 
the power of which it is susceptible, and to make it avail- 
able for the defence of the Union^, at the shortest notice, 
and at the smallest expense possible of time, of life, and 
of treasure, are among the benefits to be expected from 
the persevering deliberations of Congress. 

Among the unequivocal indications of our national 
prosperity, is the flourishing state of our finances. The 
revenues of the present year, from all their principal sour- 



104 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

ces, will exceed the anticipations of the last. The balance 
in the treasury on the first of January last, was a little 
short of two millions of dollars, exclusive of two millions 
and a half, being a moiety of the loan of five millions, 
authorized by the act of the 26th May, 1834. The re- 
ceipts into the treasury from the first of January to the 30th 
of September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same 
loan, are estimated at sixteen millions five hundred thou- 
sand dollars ; and it is expected that those of the cur- 
rent quarter will exceed five millions of dollars ; form- 
ing an aggregate of receipts of nearly t\yenty-two mil- 
lions, independent of the loan. The expenditures cf 
the year will not exceed that sum more than two 
millions. By those expenditures, nearly eight mil- 
lions of the principal of the public debt have been dis- 
charged. More than a million and a half has been devo- 
ted to the debt of gratitude to the warriors of the revolu- 
tion ; a nearly equal sum to the construction of fortifica- 
tions and the acquisition of ordnance, and other perma- 
nent preparations of national defence ; half a million to 
the gradual increase of the navy ; an equal sum for pur- 
chases of territory from the Indians, and payment of an- 
nuities to them ; and upwards of a million for objects of 
internal improvement, authorized by special acts of the 
last Congress. If we add to these, four millions of dol- 
lars for payment of interest upon the public debt, there 
remains a sum of about seven millions, which have 
defrayed the whole expense of the administration of 
government, in its legislative, executive, and judiciary 
departments, including the support of the military and 
naval establishments, and all the occasional contingencies 
of a government co-extensive with tlie Union. 

The amount of duties secured on merchandise import- 
ed, since the commencement of the year, is about twenty- 
five millions and a half; and that which will accrue during 
the current quarter, is estimated at five millions and a half ; 
from these thirty-one millions, deducting the drawbacks, 
estimated at less than seven millions, a sum exceeding 
twenty-four millions will constitute the revenue of the 
year, and will exceed the whole expenditures of the year. 
The entire amount of the public debt remaining due ou 



J. Q. AUAMb's 1 IllST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 105 

the first of January next, will be short of eighty-one mil- 
lions of dollars. 

By an act of Congress of the od of March last, a loan 
of twelve millions of dollars was authorized at four and 
a half per cent., or an exchange of stock to that amount, 
of four and a half per cent., for a stock of six per cent,, 
to create a fund for extinguishing an equal amount of the 
public debt, bearing an interest of six per cent., redeema- 
ble in 1826. An account of the measures taken to give 
effect to this act will be laid before you by the Secretary 
of the Treasury. As the object which it had in view has 
been but partially accomplished, it will be for the consid- 
eration of Congress, whether the power with which it 
clothed the executive should not be renewed at an early 
day of the present session, and under what modifications. 

The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, direct- 
ing the Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe, in the 
name and for the use of the United States, for one thou- 
sand five hundred shares of the capital stock of the Chesa- 
peake and Delaware Canal company, has been executed 
by the actual subscription for the amount specified ; and 
such other measures have been adopted by that officer, 
under the act, as the fulfilment of its intentions requires. 
The latest accounts received of this important underta- 
king, authorize the belief that it is in successful progress. 

The payments into the treasury from proceeds of the 
sales of the public lands, during the present year, were 
estimated at one million of dollars. The actual receipts 
of the first two quarters have fallen very little short of 
that sum : it is not expected that the second half of the 
year will be equally productive ; but the income of the 
year, from that source, may now be safely estimated at a 
million and a half The act of Congress of the 18th of 
May, 1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt 
due to the United States by the purcha.sers of public lands, 
was limited, in its operation of relief to the purchaser, to 
the 10th of April last. Its effect at the end of the quar- 
ter during which it expired, was to reduce that debt from 
ten to seven millions. By the operation of similar prior 
laws of relief, from and since that of 2d March, 1821. 
the debt had been reduced from upwards of twenty-two 



lOti THE TRUE AMEKICAN. 

millions to ten. It is exceedingly desirable that it should 
be extinguished altogether ; and to facilitate that consum- 
mation, I recommend to Congress the revival, for one 
year more, of the act of 18th May, 1S24, with such pro- 
visional modification as may be necessary to guard the 
public interests against fraudulent practices in the re-sale 
of relinquished land. The purchasers of public lands are 
among the most useful of our fellow-citizens ; and, since 
the system of sales for cash alone has been introduced, 
great indulgence has been justly extended to those who had 
previously purchased upon credit. The debt which had 
been contracted under the credit sales had become un- 
wieldy, and its extinction was alike advantageous to the pur- 
chaser and the public. Under the system of sales, matured 
as it has been by experience, and adapted to the exigen- 
cies of the times, the lands will continue, as they have be- 
come, an abundant source of revenue ; and when the 
pledge of them to the public creditor shall have been re- 
deemed, by the entire discharge of the national debt, the 
swelling tide of wealth with which they replenish the com- 
mon treasury, maybe made to reflow in unfailing streams 
of improvement, from the xltlantic to the Pacific ocean. 

The condition of the various branches of the public 
service resorting from the Department of War, and their 
administration during the current year, will be exhibited 
in the report of the Secretary of War, and the accompa- 
nying documents, herewith communicated. The organi- 
zation and discipline of the army are effective and satis- 
factory. To counteract the prevalence of desertion 
among the troops, it has been suggested to withhold from 
the men a small portion of their monthly pay, until the 
period of their discharge ; and some expedient appears to 
be necessary, to preserve and maintain among the officers 
so much of the art of horsemanship as could scarcely fail 
to be found wanting on the possibly sudden eruption of a 
war, which should overtake us unprovided with a single 
corps of cavalry. The Military Academy at West Point, 
under the restrictions of a severe but paternal superinten- 
dence, recommends itself more and more to the patron- 
age of the nation ; and the number of meritorious offi- 
cers which it forms and introduces to the public ser- 



J. Q. ADAMS's FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 107 

vice, furnishes the means of multiplying the undertaking 
of public improvements, to which their acquirements at 
that institution are peculiarly adapted. The school of 
artillery practice, established at Fortress Monroe, is well 
suited to the same purpose, and may need the aid of fur- 
ther legislative provision to the same end. The reports 
of the various officers at the head of the administrative 
branches of the military service, connected with the quar- 
tering, clothing, subsistence, health and pay of the army, 
exhibit the assiduous vigilance of those officers in the 
performance of their respective duties, and the faithful 
accountability which has pervaded every part of the 
system. 

Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal 
natives of this country, scattered over its extensive sur- 
face, and so dependent, even for their existence, upon our 
power, have been during the present year highly interest- 
ing. An act of Congress of the 2oth of May, 1824, 
made an appropriation to defray the expenses of making 
treaties of trade and friendship with the Indian tribes be- 
yond the Mississippi. An act of the od of March, 1825, 
authorized treaties to be made with the Indians for their 
consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Mis- 
souri to tint of New Alexico. And another act, of the 
same date, provided for defraying the expenses of hold- 
ing treaties with the Sioux, Chippewas, Menomonees, 
Sacs, Foxes, ifcc. for the purpose of establishing boun- 
daries and promoting peace between said tribes. The 
first and the last objects of these acts have been accom- 
plished ; and the second is yet in a process of execution. 
The treaties which, since the last session of Congress, 
have been concluded with the several tribes, will be laid 
before the Senate for their consideration, conformably to 
the constitution. They comprise large and valuable 
acquisitions of territory ; and they secure an adjustment 
of boundaries, and give pledges of permanent peace be- 
tween several tribes which had been long waging bloody 
wars against each other. 

On the 12th of February last, a treaty was signed at 
the Indian Springs, between commissioners appointed on 
the part of the United States, and certain chiefs and indi- 



108 THE TRUn AMERICAN. 

vidnals of the Creek nation of Indians, which was recei- 
ved at the seat of government only a very few days before 
the close of the last session of Congress and of the late 
administration. The advice and consent of the Senate 
was given to it on the 3d of March, too late for it to re- 
ceive the ratification of the then President of the United 
States : it was ratified on the 7th of March, under the 
unsuspecting impression that it had been negotiated in 
good faith and in the confidence inspired by the recom- 
mendation of the Senate. The subsequent transactions in 
relation to this treaty will form the subject of a separate 
communication. 

The appropriations made by Congress for public works, 
as well in the construction of fortifications, as for pur- 
poses of internal improvement, so far as they have been 
expended, have been faithfully applied. Their progress 
has been delayed by the want of suitable officers for su- 
perintending them. An increase of both the corps of 
engineers, military and topographical, was recommended 
by my predecessor at the last session of Congress. The 
reasons upon which that recommendation was founded, 
subsist in all their force, and have acquired additional 
urgency since that time. It may also be expedient to 
organize the topographical engineers into a corps similar 
to the present establishment of the corps of engineers. 
The Military Academy at West Point will furnish, from 
the cadets annually graduated there, officers well qualified 
for carrying this measure into effect. 

The board of engineers for internal improvement, ap- 
pointed for carrying into execution the act of Congress 
of 80th April, 1824, "to procure the necessary surveys, 
plans and estimates, on the subject of roads and canals," 
have been actively engaged in that service from the close 
of the last session of Congress. They have completed 
the surveys necessary for ascertaining the practicability 
of a canal from the Chesapeake bay to the Ohio river, 
and are preparing a full report on that subject, which, 
when completed, will be laid before you. The same ob- 
servation is to be made with regard to the two other ob- 
jects of national importance, upon which the board have 
been occupied ; namely, the accomplishment of a nation- 



J. Q. ADAMs's FiaST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 109 

ul road from this city to New Orleans, and the practica- 
bility of uniting the waters of Lake Memphremagog with 
Connecticut river, and the improvement of the naviga- 
tion of that river. The surveys have been made, and are 
nearly completed. The report may be expected at an 
early period during the present session of Congress. 

The acts of Congress of the last session, relative to the 
surveying, marking, or laying out roads in the territory 
of Florida, Arkansas, and Michigan, from Missouri to 
Mexico, and for the continuation of the Cumberland road, 
are, some of them, fully executed, and others in the pro- 
cess of execution. Those for completing or commencing 
fortifications, have been delayed only so far as the corps 
of engineers have been inadequate to furnish officers for 
the necessary superintendence of tlie works. Under the 
act confirming the statutes of Virginia and Maryland, in- 
corporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, 
three commissioners on the part of the United States have 
been appointed for opening books and receiving subscrip- 
tions, in concert with a like number of commissioners 
appointed on the part of each of those states. A meet- 
ing of the commissioners has been postponed, to await 
the definitive report of the board of engineers. The light- 
houses and monuments for the safety of our commerce 
and mariners ; the works for the security of Plymouth 
Eeach, and for the preservation of the islands in Boston 
harbor, have received the attention required by the laws 
relating to those objects, respectively. The continuation 
of the Cumberland road, the most important of them all, 
after surmounting no inconsiderable difficulty in fixing 
upon the direction of the road, has commenced under 
the most promising auspices, with the improvements of 
recent invention in the mode of construction, and with 
the advantage of a great reduction in the comparative 
cost of the work. 

The operation of the laws relating to the revolutionary 
pensioners may deserve the renewed consideration of 
Congress. The act of the 18th March, 1818, while it 
made provision for many meritorious and indigent citi- 
zens who had served in the war of independence, opened 
a door to numerous abuses and impositions. To remedy 
10 



110 THE TRUE AWEKICAN. 

this, the act of 1st May, 1S20, exacted proofs of absolute 
indigence, which many really in want were unable, and 
all, susceptible of that delicacy which is allied to many 
virtues, must be deeply reluctant to give. The result has 
been, that some among the least deserving have been re- 
tained, and some in whom the requisites both of worth and 
want were combined, have been stricken from the list. As 
the numbers of these venerable relics of an age gone by, di- 
minish ; as the decays of body, mind and estate, of those 
that survive, must, in the common course of nature, in- 
crease ; should not a more liberal portion of indulgence 
be dealt out to them ? May not the want in most instan- 
ces be inferred from the demand, when the service can be 
duly proved ; and may not the last days of human infirmity 
be spared the mortification of purchasing a pittance of re- 
lief, only by the exposure of its own necessities ? I sub- 
mit to Congress the expediency of providing for individu- 
al cases of this description, by special enactment, or of 
revising the act of the 1st of May, 1820, with a view to 
mitigate the rigor of its exclusions, in favor of persons 
to whom charity, now bestowed, can scarcely discharge 
the debt of justice. 

The portion of the naval force of the Union, in actual 
service, has been chiefly employed on three stations : the 
Mediterranean, the coasts of South America bordering 
on the Pacific ocean, and the West Indies. An occasion- 
al cruiser has been sent to range along the African shores 
most polluted by the traffic of slaves ; one armed vessel 
has been stationed on the coast of our eastern boundary, 
to cruise along the fishing grounds in Hudson's Bay, and 
on the coast of Labrador ; and the first service of a new- 
frigate has been performed, in restoring to his native soil 
and domestic enjoyments, the veteran hero whose youth- 
ful blood and treasure had freely flowed in the cause of 
our country's independence, and whose whole life has 
been a series of services and sacrifices to the improve- 
ment of his fellow-men. The visit of General Lafayette, 
alike honorable to himself and to our country, closed, as 
it had commenced, with the most affecting testimonials 
of devoted attachment on his part, and of unbounded 
gratitude of this people to him in return. It will form, 



J. Q. ADAMS's FIRST ANNUAL MKSriAGE. Ill 

hereafter, a pleasing incident in the annals of our Union, 
giving to real history the intense interest of romance, 
and signally marking the unpurchasable tribute of a great 
nation's social affections to the disinterested champion of 
the liberties of human kind. 

The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the 
Mediterranean, is a necessary substitute for the humilia- 
ting alternative of paying tribute for the security of our 
commerce in that sea, and for a precarious peace, at the 
mercy of every caprice of four Barbary states, by whom 
it was liable to be violated. An additional motive for 
keeping a respectable force stationed there at this time, 
is found in the maritime v/ar raging between the Greeks 
and the Turks ; and in which the neutral navigation of 
this Union is always in danger of outrage and depreda- 
tion. A few instances have occurred of such depreda- 
tions upon our merchant vessels by privateers or pirates 
wearing the Grecian flag, but without real authority from 
tlie Greek or any other government. The heroic strug- 
gles of the Greeks themselves, in which our warmest sym- 
pathies as freemen and Christians have been engaged, have 
continued to be maintained with vicissitudes of success 
adverse and favorable. 

Similar motives have rendered expedient the keep- 
ing of a like force on the coasts of Peru and Chili, on 
the Pacific. The irregular and convulsive character of 
the war upon the shores, has been extended to the con- 
flicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept 
np for years, with alternate success, though generally to 
the advantage of the American patriots. But their naval 
forces have not always been under the control of their 
own governments. Blockades, unjustifiable upon any ac- 
knowledged principles of international law, have been 
proclaimed by ofiiccrs in command ; and though disavow- 
ed by the supreme authorities, the protection of our own 
commerce against them has been made a cause of com- 
plaint and erroneous imputations against some of the most 
gallant officers of our navy. Complaints equally ground- 
less have been made by the commanders of the Spanish 
royal forces in those seas ; but the most effective protec- 
tion to our commerce has been the flao; and the firmness 



112 TIIK TRUE AMERICAN. 

of our own commanding officers. The cessation of the 
war, by the complete triumph of the patriot cause, has 
removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissention with one 
party, and all vestige of force of the other. But an un- 
settled coast of many degrees of latitude, forming a part 
of our own territory, and a flourishing commerce and fish- 
ery, extending to the islands of the Pacific and to China, 
still require that the protecting power of the Union 
should be displayed under its flag, as well upon the ocean 
as upon the land. 

The objects of the West Indies squadron have been, 
to carry into execution the laws for the suppression of the 
African slave trade ; for the protection of our commerce 
against vessels of piratical character, though bearing 
commissions from either of the belligerent parties ; for 
its protection against open and unequivocal pirates. 
These objects, during the present year, have been ac- 
complished more effectually than at any former period. 
The African slave trade has long been excluded from the 
use of our flag; and if some few citizens of our country 
have continued to set the laws of the Union, as well r4S 
those of nature and humanity, at defiance, by persevering 
in that abominable traffic, it has been only by sheltering 
themselves under the banners of other nations, less earn- 
est for the total extinction of the trade than ours. The 
irregular privateers have, within the last year, been in a 
great measure banished from those seas ; and the pirates, 
for months past, appear to have been almost entirely 
swept away from the borders and the shores of the two 
Spanish islands in those regions. The active, perseve- 
ring, and unremitted energy of Captain Warrington, 
and of the officers and men under his command, on that 
trying and perilous service, have been crowned with sig- 
nal success, and are entitled to the approbation of their 
country. But experience has shown that not even a 
temporary suspension or relaxation from assiduity can be 
indulged on that station without reproducing piracy and 
murder in all their horrors ; nor is it probable that, for 
years to come, our immensely valuable commerce in those 
seas can navigate in security, without the steady continu- 
ance of an armed force devoted to its protection. 



J. Q. ADAMS's FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 113 

It were indeed a vain and dangerous illusion to believe 
that in the present or probable condition of human soci- 
ety, a commerce so extensive and so rich as ours could 
exist and be pursued in safety, without the continual sup- 
port of a military marine — the only arm by which the 
power of this confederacy can be estimated or felt by 
foreign nations, and the only standing military force which 
can never be dangerous to our own liberties at home. 
A permanent naval peace establishment, therefore, adapt- 
ed to our present condition, and adaptable to that gigan- 
tic growth with which the nation is advancing in its ca- 
reer, is among the subjects which have already occupied 
the foresight of the last Congress, and which will deserve 
your serious deliberations. Our navy, commenced at an 
early period of our present political organization, upon a 
scale commensurate with the incipient energies, the scan- 
ty resources, and the comparative indigence of our infan- 
cy, was even then found adequate to cope with all the 
powers of Barbary, save the first, and with one of the 
principal maritime powers of Europe. 

At a period of further advancement, but with little ac- 
cession of strength, it not only sustained with honor the 
most unequal of conflicts, but covered itself and our 
country with unfading glory. But it is only since the 
close of the late war that, by the numbers and force of 
the ships of which it was composed, it could deserve the 
name of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organi- 
zation as when it consisted of only five frigates. The 
rules and regulations by which it is governed earnestly 
call for revision ; and the want of a naval school of in- 
struction, corresponding with the Military Academy at 
West Point, for the formation of scientific and accom- 
plished officers, is felt with daily increasing aggravation. 

The act of Congress of 26th of May, 1824, authori- 
zing an examination and survey of the harbor of Charles- 
ton, in South Carolina, of St. Mary's, in Georgia, and of 
the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been 
executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those 
of the third of March last, authorizing the establish- 
ment of a navy yard and depot on the coast of Florida, 
in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorizing the building of 



114 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the 
course of execution : for the particulars of which and 
other objects connected with this department, I refer to 
the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith com- 
municated. 

A report from the Postmaster-general is also submit- 
ted, exhibiting the present flourishing condition of that 
department. For the first time for many years, the re- 
ceipts for the year ending on the first of July last, ex- 
ceeded the expenditures during the same period, to the 
amount of more than forty-five thousand dollars. Other 
facts, equally creditable to the administration of this 
department, are, that in two years from the first of July, 
1823, an improvement of more than one hundred and 
eighty-five thousand dollars, in its pecuniary affairs, has 
been realized ; that, in the same interval, the increase of 
the transportation of the mail has exceeded one million 
five hundred thousand miles annually ; and that one 
thousand and forty new post-offices have been esta- 
blished. It hence appears, that under judicious manage- 
ment, the income from this establishment may be relied 
on as fully adequate to defray its expenses ; and that, by 
the discontinuance of post roads, altogether unproduc- 
tive, others of more useful character may be opened, 
till the circulation of the mail shall keep pace with the 
spread of our population, and the comforts of friendly 
correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and 
the lights of the periodical press, shall be distributed to 
the remotest corners of the Union, at a charge scarcely 
perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a 
dollar to the public treasury. 

Upon this first occasion of addressing the legislature 
of the Union, with which I have been honored, in pre- 
senting to their view the execution, so far as it has been 
effected, of the measures sanctioned by them, for pro- 
moting the internal improvement of our country, I can- 
not close the communication without recommending to 
their calm and persevering consideration the general 
principle in a more enlarged extent. The great object 
of the institution of civil government is the improvement 
of the condition of those who are parties to the social 



J. Q. ADAMs's FIRST ANNUAL MESSACE. 115 

compact. And no government, in whatever form con- 
stituted, can accomplish the lawful ends of its institution, 
but in proportion as it improves the condition of those 
over whom it is established. Roads and canals, by mul- 
tiplying and facilitating the communications and inter- 
course between distant regions and multitudes of men, 
are among the most important means of improvement. 
But moral, political and intellectual improvement, are 
duties assigned by the Author of our existence, to social, 
no less than to individual man. For the fulfilment of 
those duties, governments are invested vAih power ; and, 
to the attainmeni of the end, the progressive improve- 
ment of the condition of the governed, the exercise of 
delegated powers is a duty as sacred and indispensable, 
as the usurpation of powers not granted is criminal and 
odious. Among the first, perhaps the very first instru- 
ment for the improvement of the condition of men, is 
knowledge ; and to the acquisition of much of the know- 
ledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments 
of human life, public institutions and seminaries of 
learning are essential. So convinced of this was the 
first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the 
memory as, living, he was first in the hearts of our coun- 
try, that once and again, in his addresses to the Con- 
gresses with whom he co-operated in the public service, 
he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries 
of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace 
and war — a national university, and a military academy. 
With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present 
day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point, 
he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earn- 
est wishes. But, in surveying the city which has been 
honored with his name, he would have seen the spot 
of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the 
use and benefit of his country as the site for a universi- 
ty, still bare and barren. 

In assuming her station among the civilized nations of 
the earth, it would seem that our country had contracted 
the eng-agement to contribute her share of mind, of la- 
bor, and of expense, to the improvement of those parts 
of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual 



116 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

acquisition ; and particularly to geographical and astro- 
nomical science. Looking back to the history only of 
half the century since the declaration of our independ- 
ence, and observing the generous emulation with which 
the governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia, 
have devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures 
of their respective nations, to the common improvement 
of the species in these branches of science, is it not in- 
cumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not bound 
by obligations of a high and honorable character to con- 
tribute our portion of energy and exertion to the common 
stock ? The voyages of discovery prosecuted in the 
course of that time at the expense of those nations, have 
not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement 
of human knowledge. We have been partakers of that 
improvement, and owe for it a sacred debt, not only of 
gratitude, but of equal or proportional exertion in the 
same common cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, 
if the mere expenditures of outfit, equipment, and com- 
pletion of the expeditions, were to be considered the 
only charges, \t would be unworthy of a great and gene- 
rous nation to take a second thought. One hundred 
expeditions of circumnavigation, like those of Cook and 
T^a Perouse, would not burden the exchequer of the na- 
tion fitting them out, so much as the ways and means of 
defraying a single campaign in war. But if we take 
into the account the lives of those benefactors of man- 
kind, of which their services in the cause of their species 
were the purchase, how shall the cost of those heroic 
enterprises be estimated ? And what compensation can 
be made to them, or to their countries for them ? Is it 
not by bearing them in affectionate remembrance ? Is it 
not still more by imitating their example? by enabling 
countrymen of our own to pursue the same career, and 
to hazard their lives in the same cause? 

On inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of 
internal improvements, upon a view thus enlarged, it is 
not my design to recommend the equipment of an expe- 
dition for circumnavigating the globe for purposes of 
scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of 
useful investigation nearer home, and to which our cares 



J. Q. ADAMs's FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 117 

may be more beneficially applied. The interior of our 
own territories has yet been very imperfectly explored. 
Our coasts, along many degrees of latitude upon the 
shores of the Pacific ocean, though much frequented by 
our spirited commercial navigators, have been barely 
visited by our public ships. The river of the west, first 
fully discovered and navigated by a countryman of oar 
own, still bears the name of the ship in wliich he as- 
cended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed 
national flag at its mouth. With i\i2 establishment of a 
military post there, or at some other point of that coast, 
recommended by my predecessor, and already matured 
in the deliberations of the last Congress, I v»ould suggest 
the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public 
ship for the exploration of the whole north-west coast of 
this continent. 

The establishment of a uniform standard of weights 
and measures, was one of the .specific objects contem- 
plated in the formation of our constitution ; and to fix 
that standard was one of the powers delegated by express 
terms, in that instrument, to Congress. The governments 
of Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be 
occupied with inquiries and speculations on the same 
subject, since the existence of our constitution ; and 
with them it has expanded into profound, laborious, and 
expensive researches into the figure of the earth, and the 
comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in 
various latitudes, from the equator to the pole. These 
researches have resulted in the composition and publica- 
tion of several works highly interesting to the cause of 
science. The experiments are yet in the process of per- 
formance. Some of them have recently been made on 
our own shores, within the walls of op.e of our own col- 
leges, and partly by one of our own fellow-citizens. It 
would be honorable to our country if the sequel of the 
same experiments should be countenanced by the patron- 
age of our government, as they have hitherto been by 
those of France and Great Britain. 

Connected with the establishment of a university, or 
separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an 
astronomical observatory, with provision for the support 



118 THE TRUE AMKRICAX. 

of an astronomer, to be in constant atteiulanco of ob- 
servation upon the phenomena of the heavens ; and for 
the periodical publication of his observations. It is with 
no feeling of pride, as an American, that the remark may 
be made, that, on the comparatively small territorial surface 
of Europe, there are existing upwards of one hundred and 
thirty of these light-houses of the skies ; while through- 
out the whole American hemisphere there is not one. 
If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries which, in 
the last four centuries, have been made in the physical 
constitution of the universe, by the means of these build- 
ings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt 
of their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely 
a year passes over our heads without bringing some new 
astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain re- 
ceive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting 
ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, 
while we have neither observatory nor observer upon 
our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual 
darkness to our unsearching eyes ? 

When, on the 2oth of October, 1791, the first Presi- 
dent of the United States announced to Congress the re- 
sult of the first enumeration of the inhabitants of this 
Union, he informed them that the returns gave the plea- 
sing assurance that the population of the United States 
bordered on four millions of persons. At the distance 
of thirty years from that time, the last enumeration, five 
years since completed, presented a population bordering 
on ten millions. Perhaps of all the evidences of a pros- 
perous and happy condition of human society, the rapid- 
ity of the increase of population is the most unequivo- 
cal. But the demonstration of our prosperity rests not 
alone upon this indication. Onr commerce, our wealth, 
and the extent of our territories have increased in corre- 
sponding proportions ; and the number of independent 
communities, associated in our federal Union, has, since 
that time, nearly doubled. The legislative representalion 
of the states and people, in the two houses of Congress, 
has grown with the growth of their constituent bodies. 
The House, which then consisted of sixty -five members, 
now numbers upwards of two hiindred. The Senate, 



J. a. ADAM.'s's I'lKST AANUAL MMsSAGi;. 1 iU 

which consisted of twenty-six members, has now lurty- 
eight. But the executive, and still more the juJiciury 
departments, are yet in a great measure confined to their 
primitive organization, and are now not adequate to the 
urgent wants of a still growing connnunity. 

The navd armaments, which at an early period I'orced 
themselves upon the necessities of the Union, soon led 
to the establishment of a department of the navy. But 
the departments of foreign affairs and of the interior, 
which, early after the formation of the government, had 
been united in one, continue so united to this time, to 
the unquestionable detriment of the public service. The 
multiplication of our relations with the nations and go- 
vernments of the old world, has kept pace with that of 
our population and commerce, while, within the last ten 
years, a new family of nations, in our own hemisphere, 
has arisen among the inhabitants of the earth, with whom 
our intercourse, commercial and political, would, of it- 
self, furnish occupation to an active and industrious de- 
partment. The constitution of the judiciary, experiment- 
al and imperfect as it was, even in the infancy of our 
existing government, is yet more inadequate to the admin- 
istration of national justice at our present maturity. Nine 
years have elapsed since a predecessor in this office, now 
not the last, the citizen who perhaps of all others through- 
out the Union, contributed most to the formation and 
establishment of our constitution, in his valedictory ad- 
dress to Congress, immediately preceding his retirement 
from public life, urgently recommended the revision of 
the judiciary, and the establishment of an additional exe- 
cutive department. The exigencies of the public service 
and its unavoidable deficiencies, as now in exercise, have 
added yearly cumulative weight to the considerations pre- 
sented by him as persuasive to the measure ; and in re- 
commending it to your deliberations, I am happy to have 
the influence of his high authority in aid of the undoubt- 
ing convictions of my own experience. 

The laws relating to the administration of the Patent 
Office are deserving of much consideration, and perhaps 
susceptible of some improvement. The grant of power 
to regulate the action of Congress on this subject, has 



120 THE TUUE AMERICAN. 

specified both the end to be obtained and the means by 
which it is to be effected, " to promote the progress of 
science and the useful arts, by securing, for limited times, 
to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their re- 
spective writings and discoveries." If an honest pride 
might be indulged in the reflection, that on the records 
of that office are already found inventions, the usefulness 
of which has scarcely been transcended in the annals of 
human ingenuity, would not its exultation be allayed by 
the inquiry, whether the laws have effectively insured to 
the inventors the reward destined to them by the consti- 
tution — even a limited term of exclusive right to their 
discoveries ? 

On the 24th of December, 1799, it was resolved by 
Congress, that a marble monument should be erected by 
the United States, in the capitol, at the city of Washing- 
ton ; that the family of General Washington should be 
requested to permit his body to be deposited under it ; and 
that the monument be so designed as to commemorate 
the great events of his military and political life. In re- 
minding Congress of this resolution, and that the monu- 
ment contemplated by it remains yet without execution, I 
shall indulge only the remarks, that the works at the cap- 
itol are approaching to completion ; that the consent of 
the family, desired by the resolution, was requested and 
obtained ; that a monument has been recently erected in 
this city, over the remains of another distinguished patriot 
of the revolution ; and that a spot has been reserved 
within the walls where you are deliberating for the bene- 
fit of this and future ages, in which the mortal remains 
may be deposited of him whose spirit hovers over you, 
and listens with delight to every act of the representatives 
of his nation which can tend to exalt and adorn his and 
their country. 

The constitution under which you are assembled, is a 
charter of limited pov.ers. After full and solemn delibe- 
ration up-on all or any of the objects which, urged by an 
irresistible sense of my own duty, I have recommended to 
your attention, should you come to the conclusion, that, 
however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws 
for effecting them would transcend the powers committed 



J. Q. ADAMs's FIRST ANNUAL ilESSAGE. 121 

to you by that venerable instrument which we are all 
bound to support ; let no consideration induce you to as- 
sume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the 
people. But if the power to exercise exclusive legisla- 
tion, in all cases whatsoever, over the District of Colum- 
bia; if the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, 
and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common 
defence and general welfare of the United States ; if the 
power to regulate comm.erce with foreign nations, and 
among the several states, and with the Indian tribes ; to 
fix the standard of weights and measures; to establish 
post-oinces and post-roads ; to declare war ; to raise and 
support armies; to provide and maintain a navy; to dis- 
pose of and make all needful rules and regulations re- 
specting the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States ; and to make all laws which shall be ne- 
cessary and proper for carrying these powers into execu- 
tion : if these powers, and others enumerated in the con- 
stitution, may be effectually brought into action by laws 
promoting the improvement of agriculture, commerce, 
and manutactures, the cultivation and encouragement of 
the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the advancement 
of literature, and the progress of the sciences, orna- 
mental and profound ; to refrain from exercising them 
for the benefit of the people themselves, would be to hide 
in the earth the talent committed to our charge — would 
be treachery to the most sacred of trusts. 

The sj)irit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. 
It stimulates the hearts and sharpens the faculties, not of 
our fellow-citizens alone, but of the nations of Europe, 
and of their rulers. While dwelling with pleasing satis- 
faction upon the superior excellence of our political in- 
siitulior.s, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; 
that the nition blessed with the largest portion of liberty, 
must, in proportion to its numbers, be the most power- 
ful nation upon earth ; and that the tenure of power by 
man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon con- 
dition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to 
improve the condition of himself and his fellow-men. 
While foreign nations, less blessed with that freedom 
which is power than ourselves, are advancingr with gigan- 
11 



1'2'2 THE TRl i: AMKRKAX. 

tic Strides in the career of public improvement ; were we 
to slumber in indolence, or fold up our arms and proclaim 
to the world that we are palsied by the will of our consti- 
tuents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Pro- 
vidence, and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority 1 In 
the course of the year now drawing to its close, we have 
beheld, under the auspices and expense of one state in 
our Union, a new university unfolding its portals to the 
sons of science, and holding up the torch of human im« 
provement to eyes that seek the light. We have seen 
under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of 
another state, the waters of our western lakes mingle 
with those of the ocean. If undertakings like these 
have been accomplished in the compass of a few years, 
by the authority of single members of our confede- 
ration, can we, the representative authorities of the 
whole Union, fall behind our fellow-servants in the exer- 
cise of the trust committed to us for the benefit of our 
common sovereign, by the accomplishment of works im- 
portant to the whole, and to which neither the authority 
nor the resources of any one state can be adequate ? 

Finally, fellow-citizens, I shall await, with cheering 
hope and faithful co-operation, the result of your deli- 
berations ; assured that, without encroaching upon the 
powers reserved to the authorities of the respective states, 
or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your obli- 
gations to your country, and of the high responsibilities 
weighing upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means 
committed to you for the common good. And may He 
who searches the hearts of the children of men, prosper 
your exertions to secure the blessings of peace and pro- 
mote the highest v/olfare of our country. 



Jackson's inaduukal aoduess. 123 

JACKSON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 4, 1829. 

Fellotv-Citizcns : 

About to undertake the arduous duties tliat I have been 
appointed to perform, by the choice of a free people, I 
avail myself of this customary and solemn occasion to ex- 
press the gratitude which their confidence inspires, and 
to acknowledge the accountability which my situation en- 
joins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces 
me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they 
have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I 
can make, is the zealous dedication of my humble abili- 
ties to their service and their good. 

As the instrument of the federal constitution, it will 
devolve upon me, for a stated period, to execute the laws 
of the United States ; to superintend their foreign and 
confederate relations ; to manage their revenue ; to com- 
mand their forces; and, by communications to the legis- 
lature, to watch over and to promote their interests gene- 
rally. And the principles of action by which I shall 
endeavor to accon)plish this circle of duties, it is now 
proper for me briefly to explain. 

In administering the laws of Congress, I shall keep 
steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of 
the executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the 
functions of my office, without transcending its authority. 
With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace, 
and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms ; 
and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist 
or arise, to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful 
nation, rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant 
people. 

In such measures as I may be called on to pursue, in 
regard to the rights of the separate states, I hope to be 
animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members 
of our Union ; taking care not to confound the powers 
they have reserved to them.selves with those they have 
granted to the confederacv. 



VZi THE TRUE AxMEUICAN. 

The management of the public revenue — that search- 
ing operation of all governments — is among the most 
delicate and important trusts in ours ; and it will, of 
course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official 
solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be con- 
sidered, it would appear that advantage must result from 
the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I 
shall aim at the more anxiously, both because it will facili- 
tate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unne- 
cessary duration of which is incompatible with real inde- 
pendence, and because it will counteract that tendency 
to public and private profligacy which a profuse expendi- 
ture of money by the government is but too apt to en- 
gender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this 
desirable end, are to be found in the regulations provided 
by the v/isdom of Congress for the specific appropriation 
of public money, and the prompt accountability of pub- 
lic officers. With regard to a proper selection of the 
subjects of impost, with a view to revenue, it would seem 
to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise, 
in which the constitution was formed, requires that the 
jrreat interests of agriculture, commerce and manufac- 
tures, should be equally favored, and that perhaps the only 
exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar en- 
couragement of any products of either of them that may 
be found essential to our national independence. 

Internal improvement and the diffiision of knowledge, 
so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts 
of the federal government, are of high importance. 

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free go- 
vernments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge 
our present establishment, nor to disregard that salutary 
lesson of political experience which teaches that the mil- 
itary should be held subordinate to the civil power. The 
gradual increase of oiu- navy, whose flag has displayed, 
in distant climes, our skill in navigation, and our fame in 
arms ; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dock- 
yards; and the introduction of progressive improvements 
in the discipline and science of both branches of our 
military service, are so plainly prescribed by prudence 
that I should be excused for omitting their mention, soon- 



Jackson's inaugural address. 125 

er than enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark 
of our defence is the national militia, which, in the pre- 
sent state of our intelligence and population, must render 
us invincible. As long as our government is administered 
for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will ; 
as long as it secures to us the right of person and pro- 
perty, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be 
worth defending ; and so long as it is worth defending, a 
patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable tcg'is. 
Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be 
subjected to; but a million of armed freemen, possessed 
of the means of war, can never be conquered by a for- 
eign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated to 
strengthen this natural siifeguard of the country, I shall 
cheerfully lend all the aid in my power. 

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe 
towards the Indian tribes within our limits, a just and 
liberal policy; and to give that humane and considerate 
attention to their rights and their wants, which are con- 
sistent with the habits of our government and the feelings 
of our people. 

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes 
on the list of executive duties, in characters too legible 
to be overlooked, the task of reform ; which will require, 
particularly the correction of those abuses that have 
brought the patronage of the federal government into 
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counter- 
action of those causes which have disturbed the rightful 
course of appointment, and have placed or continued 
power in unfaithful or incompetent hands. 

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated, 
I shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents 
will insure, in their respective stations, able and faithful 
co-operation — depending for the advancement of the pub- 
lic service, more on the integrity and zeal of the public 
officers, than on their numbers. 

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications, 
will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of 
public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with 
veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that found- 
ed and l!)e mind that reformed our system. The same 



126 THE TRUE AMEUICAN. 

diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid 
from the co-ordinate branches of the government, and 
for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens gene- 
rally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Pow- 
er whose providence mercifully protected our national 
infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various 
vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent suppli- 
cations that He will continue to make our beloved coun- 
try the object of his divine care and gracious benediction. 



JACKSON'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, 

DECEMBER 8, 1829. 

JFellow-Citizcns of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 

It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings 
to you on the occasion of your assembling at the seat of 
government, to enter upon the important duties to which 
you have been called by the voice of our countrymen. 
The task devolves on me, under a provision of the consti- 
tution, to present to you, as the federal legislature of 
twenty-four sovereign states, ajid twelve millions of happy 
people, a view of our affairs ; and to propose such mea- 
sures as, in the discharge of my official functions, have 
suggested themselves as necessary to promote the objects 
of our Union. 

In communicating with you for the first time, it is to 
me a source of unfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual 
gratulation and devout thanks to a benign Providence, 
that we are at peace with all mankind ; and that our 
country exhibits the most cheering evidence of general 
welfare and progressive improvement. Turning our eyes 
to other nations, our great desire is to see our brethren 
of the human race secured in the blessings enjoyed by 
ourselves, and advancing in knowledge, in freedom, and 
in social happiness. 



JA_CKS0N''S FIRST ANNUAL MKSsAUK. I'iT 

Our foreign relations, although in their general cha- 
racter pacific and friendly, present subjects of difference 
between us and other powers of deep interest, as well to 
the country at large as to many of our citizens. To ef- 
fect an adjustment of these shall continue to be the ob- 
ject of my earnest endeavors ; and notwithstanding the 
difficulties of the task, I do not allow myself to appre- 
hend unfavorable results. Blessed as our country is with 
every thing which constitutes national strength, she is 
fully adequate to the maintenance of all her interests. In 
discharging the responsible trust confided to the executive 
in this respect, it is my settled purpose to ask nothing 
that is not clearly right, and to submit to nothing that is 
wrong ; and I flatter myself, that, supported by the other 
branches of the government, and by the intelligence and 
patriotism of the people, we shall be able, under the pro- 
tection of Providence, to cause all our just rights to be 
respected. 

Of the unsettled matters between the United States 
and other powers, the most prominent are those which 
have for years been the subject of negotiation with Eng- 
land, France, and Spain. The late periods at which 
our ministers to those governments left the United States, 
render it impossible, at this early day, to inform you of 
what has been done on the subjects with which they have 
been respectively charged. Relying upon the justice of 
our views in relation to the points committed to negotia- 
tion, and the reciprocal good feeling which characterizes 
our intercourse with those nations, we have the best rea- 
son to hope for a satisfactory adjustment of existing dif- 
ferences. 

With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and 
war, we may look forward to years of peaceful, honora- 
ble, and elevated competition. Everything in the condi- 
tion and history of the two nations is calculated to inspire 
sentiments of mutual respect, and to carry conviction to 
the minds of both, that it is their policy to preserve the 
most cordial relations. Such are my own views ; and it 
is not to be doubted that such are also the prevailing sen- 
timents of our constituents. Although neither time nor 
opi)ortunity has been afforded for a full development of 



l-^8 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

the policy which the present cabinet of Great Britain de- 
signs to pursue towards this country, I indulge the hope 
that it will be of a just and pacific character ; and if 
this anticipation be realized, we may look with confi- 
dence to a speedy and acceptable adjustment of our af 
fairs. 

Under the convention for regulating the reference to 
arbitration the disputed points of boundary under the 
fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, the proceedings have 
hitherto been conducted in the spirit of candor and libe- 
rality which ought ever to characterize the acts of sove- 
reign states, seeking to adjust, by the most unexception- 
able means, important and delicate subjects of contention. 
The first statements of the parties have been exchanged, 
and the final replication on our part is in a course of pre- 
paration. This subject has received the attention de- 
manded by its great and peculiar importance to a patriotic 
member of this confederacy. The exposition of our 
rights, already made, is such as from the high reputation 
of the commissioners by whom it has been prepared, we 
had a right to expect. Our interests at the court of the 
sovereign who has evinced his friendly disposition, by 
assuming the delicate task of arbitration, have been com- 
mitted to a citizen of the state of Maine, whose charac- 
ter, talents, and intimate acquaintance with the subject, 
eminently qualify him for so responsible a trust. With 
full confidence in the justice of our cause, and in the 
probity, intelligence, and uncompromising independence 
ot the illustrious arbitrator, we can have nothing to appre- 
hend from the result. 

From France, our asicient ally, we have a right to ex- 
pect that justice which becomes the sovereign of a pow- 
erful, intelligent, and magnanimous people. The benefi- 
cial effects produced by the commercial convention of 
IS'2'2, limited as are its provisions, are too obvious not to 
make a salutary impression upon the minds of those who 
are charged with the administration of her government. 
Should this result induce a disposition to embrace to their 
full extent the wholesome principles which constitute ou.- 
commercial policy, our minister to that court will b>^, 
found instructed to cherish such a disposilion, and to ai I 



JACKSO.NS I'IRST ANNUAL MKSSAGK. 129 

in conducting it to useful practical conclusions. The 
claims of our citizens for depredations upon their pro- 
perty, long since committed under the authority, and in 
many instances, by the express direction, of the then ex- 
isting government of France, remained unsatisfied ; and 
must, therefore, continue to furnish a subject of unplea- 
sant discussion, and possible collision, between the two 
governments. I cherish, however, a lively hope, founded 
as well on the validity of those claims, and the established 
policy of all enlightened governments, as on the known 
integrity of the French monarch, that the injurious de- 
lays of the past will find redress in the equity of the 
future. Our minister has been instructed to press these 
demands on the French government with all the earnest- 
ness which is called for by their importance and irrefuta- 
ble justice; and in a spirit that will evince the respect 
which is due to the feelings of those from whom the satis- 
faction is required. 

Our minister recently appointed to Spain has been 
authorized to assist in removing evils alike injurious to 
both countries, either by concluding a commercial con- 
vention upon liberal and reciprocal terms ; or by urging 
the acceptance, in their full extent, of the mutually bene- 
ficial provisions of our navigation act. He has also been 
instructed to make a further appeal to the justice of Spain, 
in behalf of our citizens, for indemnity for spoliations 
upon our commerce, committed under her authority — an 
appeal which the pacific and liberal course observed on 
our part, and a due confidence in the honor of that go- 
vernment authorized us to expect will not be made in 
vain. 

With other European powers, our intercourse is on the 
most friendly footing. In Russia, placed by her territo- 
rial limits, extensive population, and great power, high in 
the rank of nations, the United States have always found 
a steadfast friend. Although her recent invasions of Tur- 
key awakened a lively sympathy for those who were ex- 
posed to the desolations of war, we cannot but anticipate 
that the result will prove favorable to the cause of civili- 
zation, and to the progress of human happiness. The 
treaty of peace between these powers having been ratified, 



130 THE TKliJi AMEKiCAN. 

we cannot be insensible to the great benefit to be derived 
by the commerce of the United States from unlocking 
the navigation of the Black Sea — a free passage into 
which is secured to all merchant vessels bound to ports 
of Russia under a flag at peace with the Porte. This 
advantage, enjoyed upon conditions, by most of the pow- 
ers of Europe, has hitherto been withheld from us. During 
the past summer, an antecedent but unsuccessful attempt 
to obtain it, was renewed under circumstances which pro- 
mised the most favorable results. Although these results 
have fortunately been thus in part attained, further facili- 
ties to the enjoyment of this new field for the enterprise 
of our citizens are, in my opinion, sufficiently desirable 
to insure to them our most zealous attention. 

Our trade with Austria, although of secondary im- 
portance, has been gradually increasing ; and is now so 
extended as to deserve the fostering care of the govern- 
ment. A negotiation, commenced and nearly completed 
with that power, by the late administration, has been con- 
summated by a treaty of amity, navigation and commerce, 
which will be laid before the Senate. 
,,■ During the recess of Congress, our diplomatic relations 
with Portugal have been resumed. The peculiar slate 
of things in that country caused a suspension of the 
recognition of the representative who presented himself, 
until an opportunity was had to obtain from our official 
organ there, information regarding the actual, and, as far 
as practicable, prospective condition of the authority by 
Avhich the representative in question was appointed. This 
information being received, the application of the esta- 
blished rule of our government, in like cases, was no 
longer withheld. 

Considerable advances have been made during the 
present year in the adjustment of claims of our citizens 
upon Denmark for spoliations ; but all that we have a right 
to demand from that government in their behalf has not 
yet been conceded. From the liberal footing, however, 
upon which this subject has, with the approbation of the 
claimants, been placed by the government, together with 
the uniformly just and friendly disposition which has been 
cvmccd by his Danish majesty, there is a reasonable 



Jackson's first ANxrAi, message, 131 

ground to hope that tliis single subject of difference will 
speedily be removed. 

Our relations with the Barbary powers continue, as 
they have long been, of the most favorable character. 
The policy of keeping an adequate force in the Mediterra- 
nean, as security for the continuance of this tranquillity, 
will be persevered in ; as well as a similar one for the 
protection of our commerce and fisheries in the Pacific. 

The southern republics of our hemisphere have not yet 
realized all the advantages for which they have been so 
long struggling. We trust, however, that the day is not 
distant when the restoration of peace and internal quiet, 
under permanent systems of government, securing the 
liberty, and promoting the happiness of the citizens, will 
crown, with complete success, their long and arduous 
efforts in the cause of self-government ; and enable us to 
salute them as friendly rivals in all that is truly great and 
glorious. 

The recent invasion of Mexico, and the effect (hereby 
produced upon her domestic policy, mu.st have a control- 
ling influence upon the great question of South Ameri- 
can emancipation. We have seen the fell spirit of civil 
dissention rebuked, and, perhaps, forever stifled in that 
republic by the love of independence. If it be true, as 
appearances strongly indicate, that the spirit of indepen- 
dence is the master spirit ; and if a corresponding senti- 
ment prevails in the other states, this devotion to liberty 
cannot be without a proper effect upon the counsels of 
the mother countr}'. The adoption by Spain of a pacific 
policy towards her former colonies — an event consoling 
to humanity, and a blessing to the world, in which she 
lierself cannot fail largely to participate — may be most 
reasonably expected. 

The chums of our citizens upon the South American 
governments generally, are in a train of settlement, while 
the principal part of those upon Brazil have been adjusted ; 
and a decree in council, ordering bonds to be issued by 
the minister of the treasury for their amount, has received 
the sanction of his imperial majesty. This event, toge- 
ther with the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty 
negotiated and concluded in 1828, happily terminates all 
serious cau«es of difrf»renre with that power. 



132 THE TUUK AMCraCAN. 

Measures have been taken to place our commercial re- 
lations with Peru upon a better footing than that upon 
which they have hitherto rested ; and if met by a proper 
disposition on the part of that government, important bene- 
fits may be secured to both countries. 

Deeply interested as we arc in the prosperity of our 
sister republics; and more particularly in that of our 
immediate neighbor, it would be most gratifying to me 
were I permitted to say, that the treatment which we have 
received at her hands has been as universally friendly, as 
the early and constant solicitude manifested by the United 
States for her success, gave us a right to expect. But it 
becomes my duty to inform you that prejudices long in- 
dulged by a portion of the inhabitants of Mexico against 
the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of 
the United States, have had an unfortunate influence upon 
the affairs of the two countries ; and have diminished that 
usefulness to his own which was justly to be expected 
from his talents and zeal. To this cause in a great de- 
gree is to be imputed the failure of several measureb 
equally interesting to both parties ; but particularly that 
of the Mexican government to ratify a treaty negotiated 
and concluded in its own capital, and under its own eye. 
Under these circumstances, it appeared expedient to give 
to Mr. Poinsett the option either to return or not, as in 
his judgment the interest of his country might require, 
and instructions to that end were prepared ; but before 
they could be despatched, a communication was received 
from the government of Mexico, through its charge d'af- 
faires here, requesting the recall of our minister. This 
was promptly complied v»ith ; and a representative of a 
rank corresponding with that of the Mexican diplomatic 
agent near this government was appointed. Our conduct 
towards that republic has been uniformly of the most 
friendly character ; and having thus removed the only 
alleged obstacle to harmonious intercourse, I cannot but 
hope that an advantageous change will occur in our affairs. 

In justice to Mr. Poinsett, it is proper to say, that my 
immediate compliance with the application for his recall, 
and the appointment of a successsor, are not to be ascri- 
bed to any evidence that the imputation of an improper 
interference bv him, in the local politics of Mexico, wae 



Jackson's first annual message. V.ii^ 

well founded ; nor to a want of confidence in his talents 
or integrity ; and to add, that the truth of that charge has 
never been affirmed by the federal government of Mexico, 
in their communications with this. 

I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to 
bring to your attention the propriety of amending that 
part of our constitution which relates to the election of 
President and Vice-President. Our system of govern- 
ment was, by its framers, deemed an experiment ; and they, 
therefore, consistently provided a mode of remedying its 
defects. 

To the people belongs the right of electing their chief 
magistrate ; it was never designed that their choice should, 
in any case, be defeated, either by the intervention of 
electoral colleges, or by the agency confided, under cer- 
tain contingencies, to the House of Representatives. Ex- 
perience proves, that, in proportion as agents to execute 
the will of the people are multiplied, there is danger of 
their wishes being frustrated. Some may be unfaithful ; 
all are liable to err. So far, therefore, as the people can, 
with convenience, speak, it is safer for them to express 
their own will. 

The number of aspirants to the presidency, and the 
diversity of the interests which may influence their claims, 
leave little reason to expect a choice in the first instance ; 
and, in that event, the election must devolve on the House 
of Representatives, where, it is obvious, the will of the 
people may not be always ascertained ; or, if ascertained, 
may not be regarded. From the mode of voting by states, 
the choice is to be made by twenty-four votes ; and it 
may often occur, that one of those will be controlled by 
an individual representative. Honors and offices are at 
the disposal of the successful candidate. Repeated bal- 
lottings may make it apparent that a single individual 
holds the cast in his hand. May he not be tempted to 
name his reward 1 But even without corruption — sup- 
posing the probity of the representative to be proof against 
the powerful motives by which it may be assailed — the 
will of the people ie still constantly liable to be misrepro- 
sented. One may err from ignorance of the wishes of 
his conctitnents : another, from the conviction that it is 



134 Tiin TRin; amkrtca.v. 

his duty to be governed by his own judgment of the fitness 
of the candidates ; finally, although all were inflexibly 
honest — all accurately informed of the wishes of their 
constituents — yet, under the present mode of election, a 
minority may often elect the President ; and when this 
happens, it may reasonably be expected that efforts will 
be made on the part of the mnjority to rectify this injuri- 
ous operation of their institutions. But although no evil 
of this character should result from such a perversion of 
the first principles of our system — that tlic vwjnritij is to 
govern — it must be very certain that a President elected 
by a minority cannot enjoy the confidence necessary to 
the successful discharge of his duties. 

In this, as in all other matters of public concern, policy 
requires that as few impediments as possible should exist 
to the free operation of the public will. liCt us then 
endeavor to so amend our system, that the office of chief 
magistrate may not be conferred upon any citizen, but in 
pursuance of a fair expression of the will of the majority. 

I would therefore recommend such rai amendment of 
the constitution as may remove ail intermediate agency^ 
in the election of the President and Vice-President. The 
mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each state its 
present relative weight in the election ; and a fiiilure in 
the first attempt may be provided for, by confiding the 
second to a choice between the two highest candidates. 
In connection with such an amendment, it would seem 
advisable to limit the service of the chief magistrate to a 
single term of either four or six years. If, however, it 
should not be adopted, it is worthy of consideration 
whether a provision disqualifying for office, the represen- 
tatives in Congress on whom suc'i an election may have 
devolved, would not be proper. 

While members of Congress can be constitutionally 
appointed to offices of trust and profit, it will be the 
practice, even under the most conscientious adherence to 
duty, to select them for such stations as they are believed 
to be better qualified to fill than other citizens ; but the 
purity of our government would doubtless be promoted 
by their exclusion from all appointments in the gift of 
the President, in \vhncf' olortion thev mnv hnve he'^n nfii- 



Jackson's fiust annual messauk. 135 

cially concerned. The nature of the judicial office, and 
the necessity of securing in the cabinet and diplomatic 
stations of the highest rank, the best talents and political 
experience, should, perhaps, except these from the ex- 
clusion. 

There are perhaps few men who can for any great 
length of time enjoy office and power, without being more 
or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable to the 
faithful discharge of their public duties. Their integrity 
may be proof against improper considerations immedi- 
ately addressed to themselves ; but they are apt to acquire 
a habit of looking with indifference upon the public in- 
terests, and of tolerating conduct from which an unprac- 
tised man would revolt. OHice is considered as a species 
of property ; and government rather as a means of pro- 
moting individual interest, than as an instrument created 
solely for the service of the people. Corruption in some, 
and in others a perversion of correct feelings and princi- 
ples, divert government from its legitimate ends, and 
make it an engine for the support of the few at the ex- 
pense of the many. The duties of all public officers are, or 
at least admit of being made so plain and simple that men 
of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their 
performance ; and I cannot but believe that more is lost 
by the long continuance of men in office than is generally 
to be gained by their experience. I submit therefore to 
your consideration whether the efficiency of the govern- 
ment Vvould not be promoted, and official industry and 
integrity better secured by a general extension of the 
law which limits appointments to four years. 

In a country where offices are created solely for the 
benefit of the people, no one man has any more intrinsic 
right to official station than another. Offices were not 
established to give support to particular men at the pub- 
lic expense. No individual wrong is therefore done by 
removal, since neither appointment to nor continuance in 
office is matter of right. The incumbent became an offi- 
cer with a view to the public benefits ; and when these 
require his removal, they are not to be sacrificed to pri- 
vate interests. It is the people, and they alone, who have 
a right to complain, when a bad officer is substituted for 



136 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

a good one. He who is removed has the same means of 
obtaining a living that are enjoyed by the millions who 
never held office. The proposed limitation would destroy 
the idea of property, now so generally connected with 
official station ; and although individual distress may be 
sometimes produced, it would, by promoting that rotation 
which constitutes a leading principle in the republican 
creed, give healthful action to the system. 

No very considerable change has occurred during the 
recess of Congress, in the condition of either our agri- 
culture, commerce, or manufactures. The operation of 
the tariff has not proved so injurious to the two former, 
or as beneficial to the latter, as was anticipated. Importa- 
tions of foreign goods have not been sensibly diminished ; 
while domestic competition, under an illusive excitement, 
has increased the production much beyond the demand 
for home consumption. The consequences have been, 
low prices, temporary embarrassment, and partial loss. 
That such of our manufacturing establishments as are 
based upon capital, and are prudently managed, will sur- 
vive the shock, and be ultimately profitable, there is no 
good reason to doubt. 

To regulate its conduct, so as to promote equally the 
prosperity of these three cardinal interests, is one of 
the most difficult tasks of government ; and it may be 
regretted that the complicated restrictions which now 
embarrass the intercourse of nations, could not by com- 
mon consent be abolished ; and commerce allowed to 
flow in those channels to which individual enterprise, 
always its surest guide, might direct it. But we must 
ever expect selfish legislation in other nations ; and arc 
therefore compelled to adapt our own to their regulations, 
in the manner best calculated to avoid serious injury, and 
to harmonize the conflicting interests of our agriculture, 
our commerce, and our manufactures. Under these im- 
pressions, I invite your attention to the existing tariff, 
believing that some of its provisions require modification. 

The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties 
upon the articles of foreign growth or manufacture, is 
that which will place our own in fair competition with 
those of other countries : and the inducements to advance 



Jackson's first annual message. 137 

even a step beyond this point, are controlling in regard 
to those articles which are of primary necessity in time 
of war. When we reflect upon the difficulty and delicacy 
of this operation, it is important that it should never be 
attempted but with the utmost caution. Frequent legis- 
lation in regard to any branch of industry, affecting its 
value, and by which its capital may be transferred to new 
channels, must always be productive of hazardous specu- 
lation and loss. 

In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting sub- 
jects, local feelings and prejudices should be merged in 
the patriotic determination to promote the great interests 
of the whole. All the attempts to connect them with 
the party conflicts of the day are necessarily injurious, 
and should be discountenanced. Our action upon them 
should be under the control of higher and purer motives. 
Legislation, subjected to such influence, can never be 
just ; and will not long retain the sanction of the people, 
whose active patriotism is not bounded by sectional lim- 
its, nor insensible to that spirit of concession and for- 
bearance which gave life to our political compact, and 
still sustains it. Discarding all calculations of political 
ascendency, the north, the south, the east, and the west, 
should unite in diminishing any burden, of which either 
may justly complain. 

The agricultural interest of our country is so essen- 
tially connected with every other, and so superior in im- 
portance to them all, that it is scarcely necessary to invite 
it to your particular attention. It is principally as ma- 
nufactures and commerce tend to increase the value of 
agricultural productions, and to extend their application 
to the wants and comforts of society, that they deserve 
the fostering care of government. 

Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a 
sinking fund will no longer be required, the duties on 
those articles of importation which cannot come in com- 
petition with our own productions, are the first that 
should engage the attention of Congress in the modifica- 
tion of the tariff. Of these, tea and coffee are the most 
prominent; they enter largely into the consumption of 
the countrv, and have become articles of necessity to all 
" 1^* 



138 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

classes. A reduction, therefore, of the existing duties, 
will be felt as a common benefit: but, like all other 
legislation connected with commerce, to be efficacious, 
and not injurious, it should be gradual and certain. 

The public prosperity is evinced in the increased reve- 
nue arising from the sales of public lands ; and in the 
steady maintenance of that produced by imposts and ton- 
nage, notwithstanding the additional duties imposed by 
the act of 19th May, 1828, and the unusual importations 
in the early part of that year. 

The balance in the treasury on the 1st January, 1S29, 
was .^5,972,435 81. The receipts of the current year 
are estimated at $24,602,230 ; and the expenditures for 
the same time at •$26,1G4,.595. Leaving a balance in the 
treasury, on the 1st of January next, of §4,410,070 81. 

There will have been paid on account of the public 
debt during the present year, the sum of $12,405,005 80 ; 
reducing the whole debt of the government, on the first 
of January next, to $48,565,406 50, including seven 
millions of five per cent, stock subscribed to the Bank 
of the United States. The payment on account of the 
public debt, made on the first of July last, was ^8,715,- 
462 87. It was apprehended that the sudden withdrawal 
of so large a sum from the banks in which it was deposit- 
ed, at a time of unusual pressure in the money market, 
might cause much injury lo the interests dependent on 
bank accommodations. But this evil was wholly averted 
by an early anticipation of it at the treasury, aided by 
the judicious arrangements of the officers of the Bank 
of the United States. 

The state of the finances exhibits the resources of the 
nation in an aspect highly flattering to its industry, and 
auspicious of the ability of the government, in a very 
short time, to extinguish the public debt. When this 
shall be done, our population will be relieved from a con- 
siderable portion of its present burdens; and will find 
not only new motives to patriotic affection, but additional 
means for the display of individual enterprise. The 
fiscal power of the states will also be increased ; and 
may be more extensively exerted in favor of education 
and other public objects; while ample means will remain 



Jackson's I'lRiST ANiNtAL MtobAuE. 139 

in the federal government to promote the general weal, 
in all the modes permitted to its authority. 

After the extinction of the public debt, it is not proba- 
ble that any adjustment of the tariff, upon principles 
satisfactory to the people of the Union, will, until a re- 
mote period, if ever, leave the government without a 
considerable surplus in the treasury, beyond what may 
be required for its current service. As, then, the period 
approaches when the application of the revenue to pay- 
ment of the debt will cease, the disposition of the sur- 
plus will present a subject for the serious deliberation of 
Congress ; and it may be fortunate for the country that 
it is yet to be decided. Considered in connection with 
the difficulties which have heretofore attended appropria- 
tions for purposes of internal improvement, and with 
those which this experience tells us will certainly arise, 
whenever power over such subjects may be exercised by 
the general government ; it is hoped that it may lead to 
the adoption of some plan which will reconcile the di- 
versified interests of the states, and strengthen the bonds 
which unite them. Every member of the Union, in 
■peace and in war, will be benefitted by the improvement 
of inland navigation, and the construction of highways 
in the several states. Let us then endeavor to attain this 
benefit in a mode that will be satisfactory to all. That 
hitherto adopted has, by many of our fellow-citizens, 
been deprecated as an infraction of the constitution ; 
while by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All 
feel that it has been employed at the expense of harmony 
in the legislative councils. 

To avoid these evils, it appears to me that the most 
safe, just, and federal disposition which could be made 
of this surplus revenue, would be its apportionment 
among the several states, according to their ratio of re- 
presentation ; and should this measure not be found war- 
ranted by the constitution, that it would be expedient to 
propose to the states an amendment authorizing it. I 
regard an appeal to the source of power, in all cases of 
real doubt, and where its exercise is deemed advisable to 
the general welfare, as among the most sacred of all our 
obligations. Upon this country, more than any other, 



140 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

has, in the providence of God, been cast the special 
guardianship of the great principle of adherence to writ- 
ten constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it 
will be extinguished. That this was intended to be a 
government of limited and specific, and not general pow- 
ers, must be admitted by all ; and it is our duty to pre- 
serve for it the character intended by its framers. If 
experience points out the necessity for an enlargement 
of these powers, let us apply for it to those for whose 
benefit it is to be exercised ; and not undermine the 
whole system by a resort to overstrained constructions. 
The scheme has worked well. It has exceeded the hopes 
of those who devised it, and become an object of admi- 
ration to the world. We are responsible to our country 
and to the glorious cause of self-government, for the 
preservation of so great a good. The great mass of 
legislation relating to our internal affairs, was intended 
to be left where the federal convention found it — in the 
state governments. Nothing is clearer, in my view, than 
that we are chiefly indebted for the success of the con- 
stitution under which we are now acting, to the watchful 
and auxiliary operation of the state authorities. This is 
not the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply 
rooted convictions of my mind. I cannot, therefore, too 
strongly or too earnestly, for my own sense of its impor- 
tance, warn you against all encroachment upon the le- 
gitimate sphere of state sovereignty. Sustained by its 
healthful and invigorating influence, the federal system 
can never fall. 

In the collection of the revenue, the long credits au- 
thorized on goods imported from beyond the Cape of 
Good Hope are the chief cause of the losses at present 
sustained. If these were shortened to six, nine, and 
twelve months, and warehouses provided by government, 
sufiicient to receive the goods offered in deposite for se- 
curity and for debenture ; and if the right of the United 
States to a priority of payment out of the estates of its 
insolvent debtors was more effectually secured, this evil 
would in a great measure be obviated. An authority to 
construct such houses is, therefore, with the proposed 
alteration of the credits, recommended to your attention. 



Jackson's iikst annlal mlssaue. 141 

It i,> worthy of notice, that the laws for the collection 
and security of the revenue arising from imposts, were 
chiefly framed when the rates of duties on imported 
goods presented much less temptation for illicit trade 
than at present exists. There is reason to believe that 
these laws are, in some respects, quite insufficient for the 
proper security of the revenue, and the protection of the 
interests of those who are disposed to observe them. The 
injurious and demoralizing tendency of a successful sys- 
tem of smuggling is so obvious as not to require com- 
ment, and cannot be too carefully guarded against. I 
therefore suggest to Congress the propriety of adopting 
efficient measures to prevent this evil, avoiding, however, 
as much as possible, every unnecessary infringement of 
individual liberty, and embarrassment of fair and lawful 
business. 

On an examination of the records of the treasury, I 
have been forcibly struck with the large amount of pub- 
lic money which appears to be outstanding. Of this sum 
thus due from individuals to the government, a consider- 
able portion is undoubtedly desperate ; and in many in- 
stances, has probably been rendered so by remissness in 
the agents charged with its collection. By proper exertions, 
a great part, however, may yet be recovered ; and what- 
ever may be the portions respectively belonging to these 
two classes, it behoves the government to ascertain the real 
state of the fact. This can be done only by the prompt 
adoption of judicious measures for the collection of such 
as may be made available. It is believed that a very large 
amount has been lost through the inadequacy of the 
means provided for the collection of debts due to the 
public ; and that this inadequacy lies chiefly in the want 
of legal skill, habitually and constantly employed in the 
direction of the agents engaged in the service. It must, 
I think, be admitted, that the supervisory power over 
suits brought by the public, which is now vested in an 
accounting officer of the treasury, not selected with a 
view to his legal knowledge, and encumbered as he is 
with numerous other duties, operates unfavorably to the 
public interest. 

It is important that tliis branch of llie public service 



1 W THE XKLi; A.HLKICAX. 

should be subject to the supervision of such professional 
skill as will give it efficacy. The expense attendant upon 
such a modification of the executive department, would 
be justified by the soundest principles of economy. I. 
would recommend, therefore, that the duties now assigned 
to the agent of the treasury, so far as they relate to the 
superintendence and management of legal proceedings 
on the part of the United States, to be transferred to the 
attorney-general ; and that this officer be placed on the 
same footing in all respects, as the heads of the other 
departments — receiving like compensation, and having 
such subordinate officers provided for his department, as 
may be requisite for the discharge of these additional 
duties. The professional skill of the attorney-general, 
employed in directing the conduct of marshals and dis- 
trict attorneys, would hasten the collection of debts now 
in suit, and hereafter save much to the government. It 
might be further extended to the superintendence of all 
criminal proceedings for off'ences against the United States. 
In making this transfer, great care should be taken, hov*'- 
ever, that the power necessary to the treasury depart- 
ment be not impaired ; one of its greatest securities con- 
sisting in a control over all accounts until they are audited 
or reported for suit. 

In connection with the foregoing views, I would sug- 
gest, also, an inquiry, whether the provisions of the act 
of Congress, authorizing the discharge of the persons of 
debtors to the government from imprisonment, may not, 
consistently vvitli the public interest, be extended to the 
release of the debt, where the conduct of the debtor is 
wholly exempt from the imputation of fraud. Some more 
liberal policy than that which now prevails in reference 
to this unfortunate class of citizens is certainly due to 
them, and would prove beneficial to the country. The 
continuance of the liability after the means to discharge 
it have been exhausted, can only serve to dispirit the 
debtor ; or where his resources are but partial, the want 
of power in the government to compromise and release 
the demand, instigates to fraud, as the only resource for 
securing a support to his family. He thus sinks into a 
state of apathy, or becomes a useless drone in society, or 



Jackson's first annual messagf.. 143 

a vicious member of it, if not a feeling witness of the 
rigor and inhumanity of his country. All experience 
proves that an oppressive debt is the bane of enterprise ; 
and it should be the care of a republic not to exert a 
grinding power over misfortune and poverty. 

Since the last session of Congress, numerous frauds 
on the treasury have been discovered, which I thought it 
my duty to bring under the cognizance of the United 
States Court, for this district, by a criminal prosecution. 
It was my opinion, and that of able counsel who were 
consulted, that the cases came within the penalties of the 
act of the 17th Congress, approved 3d March, 1823, pro- 
viding for the punisiiraent of frauds committed on the 
government of the United States. Either from some de- 
fect in the law or in its administration, every effort to bring 
the accused to trial under its provisions proved ineffectu- 
al, and the government was driven to the necessity of 
resorting to the vague and inadequate provisions of the 
common law. It is therefore my duty to call your atten- 
tion to the lavx's which have been passed for the protection 
of the treasury. If, indeed, there is no provision by 
which those who may be unworthily intrusted with its 
guardianship, can be punished for the most flagrant vio- 
lation of duty, extending even to the most fraudulent 
appropriation of the public funds to their own use, it is 
time to remedy so dangerous an omission. Or, if the 
law has been perverted from its original purposes, and 
criminals deserving to be punished under its provisions, 
have been rescued by legal subtilties, it ought to be made 
so plain, by amendatory provisions, as to baffle the arts of 
perversion, and accomplish the ends of its original enact- 
ment. 

In one of the most flagrant cases, the court decided 
that the prosecution was barred by the statute which limits 
prosecutions for fraud to two years. In this case all the 
evidences of the fraud, and indeed all knowledge that a 
fraud had been committed, were in the possession of the 
party accused, until after the two years had elapsed. 
Surely the statute ought not to run in favor of any man 
while he retains all the evidences of his crime in his own 
possession; nnd least of all, in favor of o pubJic offijcer 



144 THU TRUi: AMIZRICAX. 

who continues lo defraud the treasury, and conceal the 
transaction for the brief term of two years. I would 
therefore recommend such an alteration of the law as will 
give the injured party and the government two years after 
the disclosure of the fraud, or after the accused is out of 
office, to commence their prosecution. 

In connection with this subject, I invite the attention 
of Congress to a general and minute inquiry into the 
condition of the government ; with a view to ascertain 
what offices can be dis])ensed with, what expenses re- 
trenched, and what improvements may be made in the 
organization of its various parts to secure the proper re- 
sponsibility of public agents, and promote efficiency and 
justice in all its operations. 

The report of the Secretary of War will make you 
acquainted with the condition of our army, fortifications, 
arsenals, and Indian affairs. The proper discipline of 
the army, the training and equipment of the militia, the 
education bestowed at West Point, and the accumulation 
of the means of defence, applicable to the naval force, 
will tend to prolong the peace we now enjoy, and which 
every good citizen, more especially those who have felt 
the miseries of even a successful warfare, most ardently 
desire to perpetuate. 

The returns from the subordinate branches of this 
service exhibit a regularity and order highly creditable 
to its character : both officers and soldiers seem imbued 
with a proper sense of duty, and conform to the restraints 
of exact discipline with that cheerfulness which becomes 
the profession of arms. There is need, however, of fur- 
ther legislation to obviate the inconveniences specified 
in the report under consideration ; to some of which it 
is proper that I should call your particular attention. 

The act of Congress of the 2d March, 1821, to reduce 
and fix the military establishment, remaining unexecuted 
as if regards the command of one of the regiments of 
artillery, cannot now be deemed a guide to the executive 
in making the proper appointment. An explanatory act, 
designating the class of officers out of which this grade 
is to be filled — whether from the military list, as existing 
prior to the, act of 1821, or from it, ns it has been fixed 



Jackson's riusx annual messagi:. 145 

by that act — would remove this difficulty. It is also im- 
portant thai the laws regulating the pay and emoluments 
of the officers generally, should be more specific than 
they now are. Those, for example, in relation to the 
paymaster and surgeon-general, assign to them an annual 
salary of $2,500 ; but are silent as to allowances which, 
in certain exigencies of the service, may be deemed in- 
dispensable to the discharge of their duties. This cir- 
cumstance has been the authority for extending to them 
various allowances at different times under former admi- 
nistrations ; but no uniform rule has been observed on 
the subject. Similar inconveniences exist in other cases, 
in which the construction put upon the laws by the pub- 
lic accountants may operate unequally, produce confu- 
sion, and expose officers to the odium of claiming what 
is not their due. 

I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our 
safest means of national defence, the Military Academy. 
This institution has already exercised the happiest influ- 
ence upon the moral and intellectual character of our 
army ; and such of the graduates as, from various causes, 
may not pursue the profession of arms, will be scarce- 
ly less useful as citizens. Their knowledge of the mili- 
tary art will be advantageously employed in the militia 
service ; and in a measure secure to that class of troops 
the advantages which in this respect belong to standing 
armies. 

I vyould also suggest a review of the pension law, for 
the purpose of extending its benefits to every revolution- 
ary soldier who aided in establishing our liberties, and 
who is unable to maintain himself in comfort. Those 
relics of the war of independence have strong claims upon 
their country's gratitude and bounty. Tlie law is de- 
fective in not embracing within its provisions all those 
who were during the last war disabled from supporting 
themselves by manual labor. Such an amendment would 
add but little to the amount of pensions, and is called for 
by the sympathies of the people, as well as by considera- 
tions of sound policy. It will be perceived that a large 
addition to the list of pensioners has been occasioned by 
an order of the late administration, departing materially 
13 



146 THE TRUE AMERICAX. 

from the rules which had previously prevailed. Consider- 
ing it an act of legislation, I suspended its operation as 
soon as I was informed that it had commenced. Before 
this period, however, applications under the new regula- 
tion had been preferred, to the number of one hundred 
and fifty-four : of which, on the 27th March, the date 
of its revocation, eighty-seven were admitted. For the 
amount there was neither estimate nor appropriation ; 
and besides this deficiency, the regular allowances, ac- 
cording to the rales which have heretofore governed the 
department, exceed the estimate of its late secretary, by 
about fifty thousand dollars, for which an appropriation is 
asked. 

Your particular attention is requested to that part of 
the report of the Secretary of War which relates to the 
money held in trust for the Seneca tribe of Indians. It 
will be perceived that, without legislative aid, the execu- 
tive cannot obviate the embarrassments occasioned by 
the diminution of the dividends on that fund, which ori- 
ginally amounted to 8100,000, and has recently been 
vested in the United States three per cent, stock. 

The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes 
within the limits of some of our states, have become ob- 
jects of much interest and importance. It has long been 
the policy of government to introduce among them the 
arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming 
them from a wandering life. This policy has, however, 
been coupled with another v.holly incompatible v\ith its 
success. Professing a desire to civilize and settle them, 
we have at the same time lost no opportunity to purchase 
their lands, and thrust them further into the wilderness. 
By this means they have not only been kept in a wander- 
ing state, but been led to look upon us as unjust and in- 
different to their fate. Thus, though lavish in expendi- 
tures upon the subject, government has constantly de- 
feated its own policy ; and the Indians, in general, rece- 
ding further and further to the west, have retained their 
savage habits. A portion, however, of the southern 
tribes, having mingled much with the whites, and made 
some progress in the arts of civilized life, have lately at- 
tempted to orert ;in independont crnvornment within the 



Jackson's i hist analal .MiibsAUK. 147 

limits of Georgia and Alabama. These states, claiming 
to be the only sovereigns within their territories, extend- 
ed their laws over the Indians ; which induced the latter 
to call upon the United States for protection. 

Under these circumstances, the question presented was, 
whctlier the general government had a right to sustain 
those people in their pretensions. The constitution de- 
clares, that " no new state shall be formed or erected 
within the jurisdiction of any other state," without the 
consent of its legislature. If the general government is 
not permitted to tolerate the erection of a confederate 
state v.ithin the territory of one of the members of this 
Union, against her consent, much less could it allow a 
foreign and independent government to establish itself 
there. Georgia became a member of the confederacy 
which eventuated in our federal onion, as a sovereign 
state, always asserting her claim to certain limits ; which 
having been originally deiined in her colonial charter, and 
subsequently recognized in the treaty of peace, she has 
ever since continued to enjoy, except as they have been 
circumscribed by her own voluntary transfer of a portion 
of her territory to the Uuited States, in the articles of 
cession of ISO'2. Alabama was admitted into the Union 
on the same footing with the original states, with boun- 
daries which were prescribed by Congress. There is no 
constitutional, conventional, or legal provision, which 
allows them less power over the Indians within their bor- 
ders, than is possessed by Maine or New York. Would 
the people of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe to erect 
an independent government within their state '.' and unless 
they did, would it not be the duty of the general govern- 
ment to support them in resisting such a measure? 
Would the people of New York permit each remnant of 
the Six Nations within her borders, to declare itself an 
nidependent people under the protection of the United 
States? Could the Indians establish a separate republic 
in each of their reservations in Ohio ? and if they were 
so disposed, would it be the duty of this gorernment to 
protect them in the attempt ? If the principle involved 
in the obvious answer to these questions be abandoned, 
it will folloAV that the objects of this government are re- 



148 THE TKUE AISIEKICAN, 

versed ; and that it has become a part of its duty to aid 
in destroying the states which it was established to pro- 
tect. 

Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the 
Indians inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama, that 
their attempt to establish an independent government 
would not be countenanced by the executive of the Uni- 
ted States ; and advised them to emigrate beyond the 
Mississippi, or submit to the laws of those states. 

Our conduct towards these people is deeply interesting 
to our national character. Their present condition, con- 
trasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful 
appeal to our sympathies. Our ancestors found them the 
uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions. By per- 
suasion and force they have been made to retire from 
river to river, and from mountain to mountain, until some 
of the tribes have become extinct, and others have left 
but remnants, to preserve, for a v/hile, their once terrible 
names. Surrounded by the whites, with their arts of ci- 
vilization, which, by destroying the resources of the sa- 
vage, doom him to weakness and decay ; the fate of the 
Mohegan, the Narragansett, .and the Delaware, is fast 
overtaking the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the Creek. 
That this fate surely awaits them if they remain within 
the limits of the states, docs not admit of a doubt. Hu- 
manity and national honor demand that every effort 
should be made to avert so great a calamity. It is too 
late to inquire whether it was just in the United States to 
include them and their territory within the bounds of 
new states whose limits they could control. That step 
cannot be retraced. A state cannot be dismembered by 
Congress, or restricted in the exercise of her constitu- 
tional power. But the people of those states, and of 
every state, actuated by feelings of justice and a regard 
for our national honor, submit to you the interesting 
question, whether something cannot be done, consistently 
with the rights of the states, to preserve this much inju- 
red race. 

As a means of effecting this end, I suggest for your 
consideration the propriety of setting apart an ample dis- 
trict west of the ^liesiseippj, and without the limits of 



JACKSON S KIKriT AXM Al, MKSSAGl.. 149 

any state or territory now formed, to be guarantied to the 
Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it ; each tribe 
having a distinct control over the portion designated for 
its use. There they may be secured in the enjoyment of 
governments of their own choice, subject to no other 
control from the United States than such as may be neces- 
sary to preserve peace on the frontier, and between the 
several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to 
teach them the arts of civilization ; and, by promoting 
union and harmony among them, to raise up an interest- 
ing commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race, and 
to attest the humanity and justice of this government. 

This emigration should be voluntary ; for it would be 
as cruel as unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon 
the graves of their fathers, and seek a home in a distant 
land. But they should be distinctly informed that, if 
they remain within the limits of the states, they must be 
subject to their laws. In return for their obedience as 
individuals, they will, without doubt, be protected in the 
enjoyment of those possessions which they have improved 
by their industry. But it seems to me visionary to sup- 
pose, that iji this state of things, claims can be allowed 
on tracts of country on which they have neither dwelt 
iior made improvements, merely because they have seen 
them from the mountain, or passed them in the chase. 
Submitting to the laws of the states, and receiving, like 
other citizens, protection in their persons and property, 
they will ere long become merged in the mass of our 
population. 

The accompanying report of the Secretary of the 
Navy will make you acquainted with the condition and 
useful employment of that branch of our service during 
the present year. Constituting, as it does, the best stand- 
ing security of this country against foreign aggression, 
it claims the especial attention of government. In this 
spirit, the measures which, since the termination of the 
last war, have been in operation for its gradual enlarge- 
ment were adopted ; and it should continue to be che- 
rished as the offspring of our national experience. It 
will be seen, however, that notwithstanding the great so- 
licitude which has been manifested for the perfect orga- 
13* 



150 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

nization of this arm, and the liberality of the appropria 
tions which that solicitude has suggested, this object has, 
in many important respects, not been secured. 

In time of peace we have need of no more ships of 
war than are requisite to the protection of our commerce. 
Those not wanted for this object, must lay in the harbors, 
where, without proper covering, they rapidly decay : and 
even under the best precautions for their preservation, 
must soon become useless. Such is already the case with 
many of our finest vessels ; which, though unfinished, will 
now require immense sums of money to be restored to 
the condition in which they were when committed to their 
proper element. On this subject there can be little doubt 
that our best policy would be to discontinue the building 
of the first and second class, and look rather to the pos- 
session of ample materials, prepared for the emergencies 
of war, than to the number of vessels which we can float 
in a season of peace, as the index of our naval power. 
Judicious deposites in the navy-yards, of timber and other 
materials, fashioned under the hands of skilful workmen, 
and fitted for prompt application to their various pur- 
poses, would enable us, at all times, to construct vessels as 
fast as they can be manned ; and save the heavy expense 
of repairs, except to such vessels as must be employed in 
guarding our commerce. The proper points for the esta- 
blishments of these yards are indicated with so much 
force in the report of the Navy Board, that, in recom- 
mending it to your attention, I deem it unnecessary to do 
more than express my hearty concurrence in their views. 
The yard in this district, being already furnished with 
most of the machinery necessary for ship building, will 
be competent to the supply of the two selected by the 
board as the best for the concentration of materials; and 
from the facility and certainty of communication between 
them, it will be useless to incur, at those depots, the ex- 
pense of similar machinery, especially that used in pre- 
paring the usual metallic and wooden furniture of vessels. 

Another improvement would be effected by dispensing 
altogether with the Navy Board, as now constituted, and 
substituting in its stead, bureaus similar to those already 
existing in the War department. Each member of the 



Jackson's rniat anmjal messaoe. 151 

board, transferred to the head of a separate bureau charged 
with specific duties, would feel, in its highest degree, that 
wholesome responsibility which cannot be divided without 
a far more proportionate diminution of its force. Their 
valuable services would become still more so when sepa- 
rately appropriated to distinct portions of the great inte- 
rests of the navy ; to the prosperity of which each would 
be impelled to devote himself by the strongest motives. 
Under such an arrangement, every branch of this impor- 
tant service would assume a more simple and precise 
character ; its efficiency would be increased, and scru- 
pulous economy in the expenditure of public money 
promoted. 

I would also recommend that the marine corps be 
merged in the artillery or infantry, as the best mode of 
curing the many defects in its organization. But little 
exceeding in number any of the regiments of infantry, 
that corps has, besides its lieutenant-colonel command- 
ant, five brevet lieutenant-colonels, who receive the full 
pay and emoluments of their brevet rank, without render- 
ing proportionate service. Details for marine service 
could as well be made from the artillery or infantry — there 
being no peculiar training requisite for it. 

With these improvements, and such others as zealous 
watchfulness and mature consideration may suggest, there 
can be little doubt that, under an energetic administration 
of its afiairs, the navy may soon be made every thing that 
the nation wishes it to be. Its efficiency in the suppres- 
sion of piracy in the West India seas, and wherever its 
squadrons have been employed in securing the interests 
of the country, will appear from the report of the secre- 
tary to which I refer you, for other interesting details. 
Among these I would bespeak the attention of Congress 
from the views presented in relation to the inequality 
between the army and navy as to the pay of officers. 
No such inequality should prevail between these brave 
defenders of their country ; and where it does exist, 
it is submitted to Congress whether it ought not to be 
rectified. 

The report of the Postmaster -general is referred to as 
exhibiting a highly satisfactory administration of that 



15'^ THE TRUE AiMEKICAN. 

department. Abuses have been reformed ; increased ex- 
pedition in the transportation of the mail secured ; and 
its revenue much improved. In a political point of view, 
this department is chiefly important as affording the means 
of diffusing knowledge. It is to the body politic what 
the veins and arteries are to the natural — conveying ra- 
pidly and regularly to the remotest parts of the system, 
correct information of the operations of the government; 
and bringing back to it the wishes and feelings of the 
people. Through its agency, we have secured to our- 
selves the full enjoyment of the blessings of a free press. 

In this general survey of our affairs, a subject of high 
importance presents itself in the present organization of 
the judiciary. A uniform operation of the federal go- 
vernment in the different states is certainly desirable; 
and existing as they do in the Union, on the basis of per- 
fect equality, each state has a right to expect thnt the 
benefits conferred on the citizens of others should be 
extended to hers. The judicial system of the United 
States exists in all its efficiency in only fifteen members 
of the Union : to three others, the circuit courts, which 
constitute an important part of that system, have been 
imperfectly extended ; and to the remaining six, altoge- 
ther denied. The effect has been to withhold from the 
inhabitants of the latter, the advantages afforded (by the 
supreme court) to their fellow-citizens in other states, in 
the whole extent of the criminal, and much of the civil 
authority of the federal judiciary. That this state of 
things ought to be remedied, if it can be done consist- 
ently with the public welfare, is not to be doubted : nei- 
ther is it to be disguised that the organization of our ju- 
dicial system is at once a dilficult and delicate task. To 
extend the circuit courts equally throughout the different 
parts of the Union, and at the same time, to avoid such a 
multiplication of members as would encumber the su- 
preme appellate tribunal, is the object desired. Perhaps 
it might be accomplished by dividing the circuit judges 
into two classes, and providing that the supreme court 
should be held by those classes alternately — the chief 
justice always presiding. 

If an extension of the circuit court system to those 



Jackson's; fiksx annual me»6Aujc;. 153 

States whicli do not now enjoy its benefits should be de- 
termined upon, it would of course be necessasy to revise 
the present arrangements of the circuits; and even if that 
system should not be enlarged, such a revision is recom- 
mended. 

A provision for taking the census of the people of the 
United States will, to insure the completion of that work 
within a convenient time, claim the early attention of 
Congress. 

The great and constant increase of business in the De- 
partment of State forced itself, at an early period, upon 
the attention of the executive. Thirteen years ago, it 
was in Mr. Madison's last message to Congress made the 
subject of an earnest recommendation, which has been 
repeated by both of his successors ; and my compara- 
tively limited experience has satisfied me of its justness. 
It has arisen from many causes, not the least of which is 
the large addition that has been made to the family of in- 
dependent nations, and the proportionate extension of our 
foreign relations. The remedy proposed was the esta- 
blishment of a Home Department — a measure which 
does not appear to have met the views of Congress, on 
account of its supposed tendency to increase gradually, 
and imperceptibly, the already too strong bias of the fe- 
deral system towards the exercise of authority not dele- 
gated to it. I am not, therefore, disposed to revive the 
recommendation ; but am not the less impressed with the 
importance of so organizing that department, that its se- 
cretary may devote more of his time to our foreign rela- 
tions. Clearly satisfied that the public good would be 
promoted by some suitable provision on the subject, I re- 
spectfully invite your attention to it. 

The charter of the Bank of the United States expires 
in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply for 
a renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid the evils 
resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving such 
important principles, and such deep pecuniary interests, 
I feel that I cannot, in justice to the parties interested, 
too soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the 
legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and 
the expediency of the law creating this bank are well 



154 THE TKUE AMKIUCAN. 

questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens ; and 
it must be admitted by all, that it has failed in the great 
end of establishing a uniform and sound currency. 

Under these circumstances, if such an institution is 
deemed essential to the fiscal operations of the govern- 
ment, I submit to the wisdom of the legislature whether 
a national one, founded upon the credit of the govern- 
ment and its revenues, might not be devised, which would 
avoid all constitutional difficulties ; and, at the same time, 
secure all the advantages to the government and country 
that were expected to result from the present bank. 

I cannot close this communication without bringing 
to your view the just claim of the representatives of Com- 
modore Decatur, his officers and crew, arising from the 
re-capture of the frigate Philadelphia, under the heavy 
batteries of Tripoli. Although sensible, as a general 
rule, of the impropriety of executive interference under 
a government like ours, where every individual enjoys 
the right of directly petitioning Congress ; yet viewing 
this case as one of very peculiar character, I deem it my 
duty to recommend it to your favorable consideration. 
Besides the justice of this claim, as corresponding to 
those which have been since recognized and satisfied, it 
is the fruit of a deed of patriotic and chivalrous daring, 
which infused life and confidence into our infant navy, 
and contributed, as much as any exploit in its history, to 
elevate our national character. Public gratitude, there- 
fore, stamps her seal upon it ; and the meed should not be 
withheld which may hereafter operate as a stimulus to 
our gallant tars. 

I now commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance 
of Almighty God, with a full reliance on his merciHil 
providence for the maintenance of our free institutions ; 
and with an earnest supplication, that whatever errors it 
may be my lot to commit, in discharging the arduous du- 
ties which have devolved on me, will find a remedy in 
the harmony and wisdom of your counsels. 



MAYSVILLE ROAD VETO. 155 

MAYSVILLE ROAD VETO, 
MAY 27, 1830. 

To the House of Representatives : 

Gentlemen : I have maturely considered the bill pro- 
posing to authorize " a subscription of stock in the Mays- 
ville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike-road 
Company," and now return the same to the House of 
Representatives in which it originated, with my objec- 
tions to its passage. 

Sincerely friendly to the improvement of our country 
by means of roads and canals, 1 regret that any difference 
of opinion in the mode of contributing to it should exist 
between us ; and if, in stating this difference, I go beyond 
what the occasion may be deemed to call for, I hope to 
find an apology in the great importance of the subject, 
an unfeigned respect for the high source from which this 
branch of it has emanated, and an anxious wish to be 
correctly understood by my constituents in the discharge 
of all my duties. Diversity of sentiment among public 
functionaries, actuated by the same general motives, on 
the character and tendency of particular measures, is an 
incident common to all governments, and the more to be 
expected in one which, like ours, owes its existence to the 
freedom of opinion, and must be upheld by the same in- 
fluence. Controlled, as we thus are, by a higher tribu- 
nal, before which our respective acts will be canvassed 
with the indulgence due to the imperfections of our na- 
ture, and with that intelligence and unbiassed judgment 
which are the true correctives of error, all that our re- 
sponsibility demands is, that the public good should be 
the measure of our views, dictating alike their frank ex- 
pression and honest maintenance. 

In the message which was presented to Congress at 
the opening of its present session, I endeavored to exhibit 
briefly my views upon the important and highly interest- 
ing subject to which our attention is now to be directed. 
I was desirous of presenting to the representatives of the 
several states in Congress assembled, the inquiry, whether 
some mode could not he devised, which would reconcile 



150 THE TRUK AMERICAN. 

the diversity of opinion concerning the powers of this 
government over the subject of internal improvement, and 
the manner in which these powers, if conferred by the 
constitution, ought to be exercised. The act which I am 
called upon to consider has therefore been passed with a 
knowledge of my views on this question, as these are 
expressed in the message referred to. In that document, 
the following suggestions will be found : — 

" After the extinction of the public debt, it is not proba- 
ble that any adjustment of the tariff, upon principles sa- 
tisfactory to the people of the Union, will, until a remote 
period, if ever, leave the government without a considera- 
ble surplus in the treasury, beyond what may be required 
for its current service. As, then, the period approaches 
when the application of the revenue to the payment of 
debt will cease, the disposition of the surplus will present 
a subject for the serious deliberation of Congress; and it 
may be fortunate for the country that it is yet to be deci- 
ded. Considered in connection with the difficulties which 
have heretofore attended appropriations for purposes of 
internal improvement ; and with those which this experi- 
ence tells us will certainly arise, whenever power over 
such subjects may be exercised by the general govern- 
ment ; it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some 
plan which will reconcile the diversified interests of the 
states, and strengthen the bonds which unite them. Every 
member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be bene- 
fitted by the improvement of inland navigation, and the 
construction of highways in the several states. Let us 
then endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode which will 
be satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has, by many 
of our fellow-citizens, been deprecated as an infraction 
of the constitution ; while by others it has been viewed 
as inexpedient. All feel that it has been employed at the 
expense of harmony in the legislative councils." And 
adverting to the constitutional power of Congress to make 
what I consider a proper disposition of the surplus reve- 
nue, I subjoined the following remarks : " To avoid these 
evils, it appears to me that the most safe, just, and feder- 
al disposition which could be made of the surplus reve- 
nue, would be its apportionment among the several states 



MAYSVILLE ROAIi VETO. 157 

according to their ratio of representation ; and should 
this measure not be found warranted by the constitution, 
that it would be expedient to propose to the states an 
amendment authorizing it." 

The constitutional power of the federal government to 
construct or promote works of internal improvement, pre- 
sents itself in two points of view, — the first, as bearing 
upon the sovereignty of the states within whose limits 
their execution is contemplated, if jurisdiction of the 
territory which they may occupy be claimed as necessary 
to their preservation and use: the second, as asserting 
the simple right to appropriate money from the national 
treasury in aid of such works, when undertaken by state 
authority, surrendering the claim of jurisdiction. In the 
first view, the question of power is an open one, and can 
be decided without the embarrassment attending the other, 
arising from the practice of the government. Although 
frequently and strenuously attempted, the power, to this 
extent, has never been exercised by the government in a 
single instance. It does not, in my opinion, possess it; 
and no bill, therefore, which admits it, can receive my ' 
ofticial sanction. 

But, in the other view of the power, the question is 
diiferently situated. The ground taken at an early period 
of the government was, " that, whenever money has been 
raised by the general authority, and is to be applied to 
a particular measure, a question arises, whether a par- 
ticular measure be within the enumerated authorities 
vested in Congress. If it be, the money requisite for it 
may be applied to it ; if not, no such application can be 
made." The document in which this principle was first 
advanced is of deservedly high authority, and should be 
held in grateful remembrance for its immediate agency 
in rescuing the country from much existing abuse, and 
for its conservative effect upon some of the most valuable 
principles of the constitution. The symmetry and purity 
of the government would doubtless have been better pre- 
served if this restriction of the power of appropriation 
could have been maintained without weakening its ability 
to fulfil the general objects of its institution — an effect so 
likely to attend its admission, notwithstanding its appa- 
H 



158 THE TKUE AMERICAN. 

rent fitness, tliat every subsequent administration of the 
government, embracing a period of thirty out of forty- 
two years of its existence, has adopted a more enlarged 
construction of the power. It is not my purpose to detain 
you by a minute recital of the acts which sustain this 
assertion, but it is proper that I should notice some of the 
most prominent, in order that the reflections which they 
suggest to my mind may be better understood. 

In the administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two 
examples of the exercise of the right of appropriation, 
which, in the considerations that led to their adoption, 
and in their effects upon the public mind, have had a 
greater agency in marking the character of the power 
than any subsequent events. I allude to the payment of 
fifteen millions of dollars for the purchase of Louisiana, 
and to the original appropriation for the construction of 
the Cumberland road ; the latter act deriving much weight 
from the acquiescence and approbation of the three most 
powerful of the original members of the confederacy, ex- 
pressed through their respective legislatures. Although 
the circumstances of the latter case may be such as to 
deprive so much of it as relates to the actual construc- 
tion of the road, of the force of an obligatory exposition 
of the constitution, it must nevertheless be admitted that 
so far as the mere appropriation of money is concerned, 
they present the principle in its most imposing aspect. 
No less than twenty-three different laws have been passed 
through all the forms of the constitution, appropriating 
upwards of two millions and a half dollars out of the na- 
tional treasury in support of that improvement, with the 
approbation of every President of the United States, 
including my predecessor, since its commencement. 

Independently of the sanction giving appropriations for 
the Cumberland and other roads and objects, under this 
power, the administration of Mr. Madison was characteri- 
sed by an act which furnishes the strongest evidence of 
its extent. A bill was passed through both houses of 
Congress, and presented for his approval, " setting apart 
and pledging certain funds for constructing roads and 
canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, 
in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to inter- 



MAY5VILLE ROAD VETO. 159 

« 

nal commerce among the several state.^, and to render 
more easy and less expensive, the means and provisions 
for the common defence." Regarding the bill as asserting 
a power in the federal government to construct roads and 
canals within the limits of the states, in which they were 
made, he objected to its passage, on the ground of its 
unconstitutionality, declaring that the assent of the re- 
spective states, in the mode provided by the bill, could 
not confer the power in question ; that the only cases in 
which the consent and cession of particular states can 
extend the power of Congress, are those specified and 
provided for in the constitution ; and superadding these 
avowals, his opinion that a restriction of the power " to 
provide for the common defence and general welfare" to 
cases which are to be provided for by the expenditure of 
money, would still leave within the legislative power of 
Congress all the great and most important measures of 
government, money being the ordinary and necessary 
means of carrying them into execution. I have not been 
able to consider these declarations in any other point of 
view than as a concession that the right of appropriation 
is not limited by the power to carry into effect the mea- 
sure for which the money is asked, as was formerly con- 
tended. 

The views of Mr. Monroe upon this subject were not 
left to inference. During his administration a bill was 
passed through both houses of Congress, conferring the 
jurisdiction, and prescribing the mode by which the fed- 
eral government should exercise it, in the case of the 
Cumberland road. He returned it, with objections to its 
passage, and in assigning them, took occasion to say, 
that in the early stages of the government, he had inclin- 
ed to the construction that it had no right to expend 
money except in the performance of acts authorized by 
the other specific grants of power, according to a strict 
construction of them ; but that, on further reflection and 
observation, his mind had undergone a change ; that his 
opinion then was, "that Congress have an unlimited pow- 
er to raise money, and that in its appropriation they have 
a discretionary power, restricted by the duty to appropri- 
ate to purposes of common defence, and of general, not 



IGO THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

local ; national, not state benefit ;" and this was avowed 
to be the governing principle through the residue of his 
administration. The views of the last administration are 
of such recent date as to render a particular reference to 
them unnecessary. It is well known that the appropria- 
ting power, to the utmost extent which had been claimed 
for it in relation to internal improvements, was fully re- 
cognized and exercised by it. 

This brief reference to known facts will be sufficient 
to show the difficulty, if not impracticability of bringing 
back the operations of the government to the construc- 
tion of the constitution set up in 1798, assuming that 
to be its true reading, in relation to the power under con- 
sideration ; thus giving an admonitory proof of the force 
of implication, and the necessity of guarding the consti- 
tution with sleepless vigilance against the authority of 
precedents which have not the sanction of its most plainly 
defined powers. For, although it is the duty of all to 
look to that sacred instrument, instead of the statute book ; 
to repudiate at all times, encroachments upon its spirit, 
which are too apt to be effected by the conjuncture of 
peculiar and facilitating circumstances; it is not less true 
that the public good and the nature of our political in- 
stitutions require that individual differences should yield 
to a well-settled acquiescence of the people and confed- 
erated authorities, in particular constructions of the con- 
stitution on doubtful points. Not to concede this much 
to the spirit of our institutions, would impair their stabili- 
ty, and defeat the objects of the constitution itself. 

The bill before me does not call for a more definite 
opinion upon the particular circumstances which will 
warrant appropriations of money by Congress, to aid 
works of internal improvement ; for although the exten- 
sion of the power to apply money beyond that of carrying 
into effect the object for which it is appropriated, has, as 
we have seen, been long claimed and exercised by the 
federal government, yet such grants have always been 
professedly under the control of the general principle, 
that the works which might be thus aided, should be "of 
a general, not local ; national, not state character." A 
disregard of this distinction would of necessity lead to 



MAVSVILLF. ROAD VETO. 161 

the subversion of the federal system. That even this is 
an unsafe one, arbitrary in its nature, and liable conse- 
quently to great abuses, is too obvious to require the con- 
firmation of experience. It is, however, sufficiently defi- 
nitive and imperative to my mind to forbid my approba- 
tion of any bill having the character of the one under 
consideration. I have given to its provisions all the re- 
flection demanded by a just regard for the interests of 
those of our fellow-citizens who have desired its passage, 
and by the respect which is due to a co-ordinate branch 
of the government ; but I am not able to view it in any 
other light than as a measure of purely local character ; 
or, if it can be considered national, that no further dis- 
tinction between the appropriate duties of the general 
and state governments need be attempted ; for there can 
be no local interest that may not with equal propriety be 
denominated national. It has no connection with any 
established system of improvements; is exclusively within 
the limits of a state, starting at a point on the Ohio river, 
and running out sixty miles to an interior town ; and even 
so far as the state is interested, conferring partial, instead 
of general advantages. 

Considering the magnitude and importance of the pow- 
er, and the embarrassments to which, from the very nature 
of the thing, its exercise must necessarily be subjected, 
the real friends of internal improvement ought not to be 
willing to confide it to accident and chance. What is 
properly national in its character or otherwise, is an in- 
quiry which is often difficult of solution. The appropri- 
ations of one year, for an object which is considered na- 
tional, may be rendered nugatory by the refusal of a suc- 
ceeding Congress to continue the work, on the ground 
that it is local. No aid can be derived from the inter- 
vention of corporations. The question regards the cha- 
racter of the work, not that of those by whom it is to be 
accomplished. Notwithstanding the union of the govern- 
ment with the corporation, by whose immediate agency 
any work of internal improvement is carried on, the in- 
quiry will still remain, Is it national, and conducive to 
the benefit of the whole, or local, and operating only to 
the advantage of a portion of the Union ? 
\i* 



162 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

But, although I might not feel it to be my official duty 
to interpose the executive veto to the passage of a bill 
appropriating money for the construction of such works 
as are authorized by the states, and are national in their 
character, I do not wish to be understood as expressing 
an opinion that it is expedient at this time, for the gene- 
ral government to embark in a system of this kind ; and, 
anxious that my constituents should be possessed of my 
views on this as well as on all other subjects which they 
have committed to my discretion, I shall state them frank- 
ly and briefly. Besides many minor considerations, there 
are two prominent views of the subject which I think are 
well entitled to your serious attention, and will, I hope, 
be maturely weighed by the people. 

From the oflicial communication submitted to you, it 
appears, that if no adverse or unforeseen contingenc 
happens in our foreign relations, and no unusual diver- 
sion be made of the funds set apart for the payment ol 
the national debt, we may look with confidence to its en- 
tire extinguishment in the short period of four years. 
The extent to which this pleasing anticipation is depend- 
ent upon the policy which may be pursued in relation to 
measures of the character of the one now under consi- 
deration, must be obvious to all, and equally so that the 
events of the present session are well calculated to awa- 
ken public solicitude upon the subject. By the statement 
from the Treasury department, and those from the clerks 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, herewith 
submitted, it appears that the bills which have passed into 
laws, and those which, in all probability, will pass before 
the adjournment of Congress, anticipate appropriations 
which, with ordinary expenditures for the support of go- 
vernment, will exceed considerably the amount in the 
treasury for the year 1830. Thus, whilst we are dismiss- 
ing the revenues by a reduction of the duties on tea, cof- 
fee, and cocoa, the appropriations for internal improve- 
ment are increasing beyond the available means in the 
treasury ; and if to this calculation be added the amounts 
contained in bills which are pending before the two hou- 
ses, it may be safely affirmed that ten millions of dollars 
would not make up the excess over the treasurv receipts, 



MAYSVILLF. ROAD VETO. 163 

unless the payment of the national debt be postponed, 
and the means now pledged to that object applied to those 
enumerated in these bills. Without a well-regulated sys- 
tem of internal improvement, this exhausting mode of 
appropriation is not likely to be avoided, and the plain 
consequence must be, either a continuance of the nation- 
al debt, or a resort to additional taxes. 

Although many of the states, with a laudable zeal, and 
under the influence of an enlightened policy, are succes- 
sively applying their separate efforts to works of this cha- 
racter, the desire to enlist the aid of the general govern- 
ment in the construction of such as, from their nature, 
ought to devolve upon it, and to which the means of the 
individual states are inadequate, is both rational and pa- 
triotic ; and if that desire is not gratified now, it does not 
follow that it never will be. The general intelligence 
and public spirit of the American people furnish a sure 
guarantee, that, at the proper time, this policy will be 
made to prevail under circumstances more auspicious to 
its successful prosecution than those which now exist. 
But, great as this object undoubtedly is, it is not the only 
one which demands the fostering care of the government. 
The preservation and success of the republican principle 
rest with us. To elevate its character, and extend its 
influence, rank among our most important duties ; and 
the best means to accomplish this desirable end, are those 
which will rivet the attachment of our citizens to the 
government of their choice, by the comparative lightness 
of their public burdens, and by the attraction v/hich the 
superior success of its operations will present to the ad- 
miration and respect of the world. Through the favor 
of an overruling and indulgent Providence, our country 
is blessed with general prosperity, and our citizens ex- 
empted from the pressure of taxation which other less 
favored portions of the human family are obliged to bear ; 
yet it is true that many of the taxes collected from our 
citizens, through the medium of imposts, have, for a con- 
siderable period, been onerous. In many particulars, 
these taxes have borne severely upon the laboring and less 
prosperous classes of the community, being imposed on 
the necessaries of life, and this, ton, in rases where the 



164 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

burden was not relieved by the consciousness that it 
would ultimately contribute to make us independent of 
foreign nations for articles of prime necessity, by the en- 
couragement of their growth and manufacture at home. 
They have been cheerfully borne, because they were 
thought to be necessary to the support of government, 
and the payment of the debts unavoidably incurred in the 
acquisition and maintenance of our national rights and 
liberties. But have we a right to calculate on the same 
cheerful acquiescence, when it is known that the necessi- 
ty for their continuance would cease, were it not for ir- 
regular, improvident, and unequal appropriations of the 
public funds ? Will not the people demand, as they have 
a right to do, such a prudent system of expenditure as 
will pay the debts of the Union, and authorize the reduc- 
tion of every tax to as low a point as the wise observance 
of the necessity to protect that portion of our manufac- 
tures and labor, whose prosperity is essential to our na- 
tional safety and independence, will allow ? When the 
national debt is paid, the duties upon those articles which 
we do not raise may be repealed with safety, and still 
leave, I trust, without oppression to any section of the 
country, an accumulating surplus fund, which may be 
beneficially applied to some well-digested system of im- 
provement. 

Under this view, the question, as to the manner in which 
the federal government can, or ought to embark in the 
construction of roads and canals, and the extent to which 
it may impose burdens on the people for these purposes, 
may be presented on its own merits, free of all disguise, 
and of every embarrassment except such as may arise from 
the constitution itself. Assuming these suggestions to be 
correct, will not our citizens require the observance of a 
course by which they can be effected ? Ought they not to 
require it? With the best disposition to aid, as far as I 
can conscientiously, in the furtherance of works of inter- 
nal improvement, my opinion is, that the soundest views 
of national policy, at this time, point to such a course. 
Besides the avoidance of an evil influence upon the local 
concerns of the country, how solid is the advantage which 
the government will reap from it in the elevation of its 



MAYSVILLE ROAI> VETO. 165 

character ! How gratifying the effect of presenting to 
the world the sublime spectacle of a republic, of more 
than twelve millions of happy people, in the fifty-fourth 
year of her existence — after having passed through two 
protracted wars, the one for the acquisition, and the other 
for the maintenance of liberty — free from debt, and with 
all her her immense resources unfettered ! What a 
salutary influence would not such an exhibition exercise 
upon the cause of liberal principles and free government 
throughout the world ! Would we not ourselves find, in 
its effect, an additional guarantee that our political insti- 
tutions will be transmitted to the most remote posterity 
without decay ? A course of policy destined to witness 
events like these, cannot be benefitted by a legislation 
which tolerates a scramble for appropriations that have no 
relation to any general system of improvement, and whose 
good effects must of necessity be very limited. In the 
best view of these appropriations, the abuses to which they 
lead, far exceed the good which they are capable of pro- 
moting. They may be resorted to as artful expedients to 
shift upon the government the losses of unsuccessful pri- 
vate speculation, and thus, by ministering to personal am- 
bition and self-aggrandizement, tend to sap the founda- 
tions of public virtue, and taint the administration of the 
government with a demoralizing influence. 

In the other view of the subject, and the only remain- 
ing one v/hich it is my intention to present at this time, 
is involved the expediency of embarking in a system of 
internal improvement without a previous amendment of 
the constitution, explaining and defining the precise pow- 
ers of the federal government over it. Assuming the 
right to appropriate money to aid in the construction of 
national works, to be warranted by the contemporaneous 
and continued exposition of the constitution, its insuffi- 
ciency for the successful prosecution of them must be ad- 
mitted by all candid minds. If we look to usage to de- 
fine the extent of the right, that will be found so variant, 
and embracing so much that has been overruled, as to in- 
volve the whole subject in great uncertainty, and to render 
the execution of our respective duties in relation to it re. 
plete with difficulty and embarrassment. It is in regard 



16G THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

to such works and the acquisition of additional territory, 
that the practice obtained its first footing. In most, if not 
all other disputed questions of appropriation, the construc- 
tion of the constitution may be regarded as unsettled, if 
the right to apply money, in the enumerated cases, is 
placed on the ground of usage. 

This subject has been of much, and, I may add, painful 
reflection to me. It has bearings that are well calculated 
to exert a powerful influence upon our hitherto prosperous 
system of government, and which, on some accounts, may 
even excite despondency in the breast of an American 
citizen. I will not detain you with professions of zeal in 
the cause of internal improvements. If to be their friend 
is a virtue which deserves commendation, our country is 
blest with an abundance of it ; for I do not suppose there 
is an intelligent citizen who does not wish to see them 
flourish. But though all are their friends, but few, I 
trust, are unmindful of the means by which they should 
be promoted ; none certainly are so degenerate as to de- 
sire their success at the cost of that sacred instrument, 
with the preservation of which is indissolubly bound our 
country's hopes. If different impressions are entertained 
in any quarter ; if it is expected that the people of this 
country, reckless of their constitutional obligation, will 
prefer their local interest to the principles of the Union, 
such expectations will in the end be disappointed ; or, if 
it be not so, then indeed has the world but little to hope 
from the example of a free government. When an honest 
observance of constitutional compacts cannot be obtained 
from communities like ours, it need not be anticipated 
elsewhere ; and the cause in which there has been so 
much martyrdom, and from which so much was expected 
by the friends of liberty, may be abandoned, and the de- 
grading truth, that man is unfit for self-government, ad- 
mitted. And this will be the case, if expediency be made 
a rule of construction in interpreting the constitution. 
Power, in no government, could desire a better shield for 
the insidious advances which is ever ready to make up 
the checks that are designed to restrain its action. 

But I do not entertain such gloomy apprehensions. If 
it be the wish of the people that the construction of roads 



MAVSVILLC KOAD VETO. 167 

and canals should be conducted by the federal govern- 
ment, it is not only highly expedient, but indispensably 
necessary, that a previous amendment of the constitution, 
delegating the necessary power, and defining and restrict- 
ing its exercise with reference to the sovereignty of the 
states, should be made. Without it, nothing extensively 
useful can be effected. The right to exercise as much 
jurisdiction as is necessary to preserve the works, and to 
raise funds by the collection of tolls to keep them in re- 
pair, cannot be dispensed with. The Cumberland road 
should be an instructive admonition of the consequences 
of acting without this right. Year after year, contests 
are witnessed, growing out of eftbrts to obtain the neces- 
sary appropriations for completing and repairing this use- 
ful work. Whilst one Congress may claim and exercise 
the power, a succeeding one may deny it ; and this fluc- 
tuation of opinion must be unavoidably fatal to any scheme 
which, from its extent, would promote the interests and 
elevate the character of the country. The experience of 
the past has shown that the opinion of Congress is sub- 
ject to such fluctuations. 

If it be the desire of the people that the agency of the 
federal government should be confined to the appropria- 
tion of money in aid of such undertakings, in virtue of 
state authorities, then the occasion, the manner, and the 
extent of the appropriations should be made the subject 
of constitutional regulation. This is the more necessary, 
in order that they may be equitable among the several 
states ; promote harmony between different sections of 
the Union and their representatives ; preserve other parts 
of the constitution from being undermined by the exer- 
cise of doubtful powers, or the too great extension of 
those which are not so ; and protect the whole subject 
against the deleterious influence of combinations to carry 
by concert, measures which, considered by themselves, 
might meet but little countenance. That a constitutional 
adjustment of this power upon equitable principles is iu 
the highest degree desirable, can scarcely be doubted ; 
nor can it fail to be promoted by every sincere friend to 
the success of our political institutions. In no govern- 
ment are appeals to the source of power in cases of real 



168 THK TRUIJ AMKKICAN. 

doubt more suitable than in ours. No good motive can 
be assigned for the exercise of power by the constituted 
authorities, while those for whose benefit it is to be exer- 
cised have not conferred it, and may not be willing to 
confer it. It would seem to me that an honest application 
of the conceded powers of the general government to the 
advancement of the common weal, presents a sufficient 
scope to satisfy a reasonable ambition. The difficulty and 
supposed impracticability of obtaining an amendment of 
the constitution in this respect is, I firmly believe, in a 
great degree unfounded. The time has never yet been 
when the patriotism and intelligence of the American 
people were not fully equal to the greatest exigency ; and 
it never will, when the subject calling forth their interpo- 
sition is plainly presented to them. To do so with the 
questions involved in this bill, and to urge them to an 
early, zealous and full consideration of their deep impor- 
tance, is in my estimation among the highest of our 
duties. 

A supposed connection between appropriations for in- 
ternal improvement and the system of protecting duties, 
growing out of the anxieties of those more immediately 
interested in their success, has given rise to suggestions 
which it is proper I should notice on thi.s occasion. My 
opinions on these subjects have never been concealed 
from those who had a right to know them. Those 
which I have entertained on the latter have frequently 
placed me in o])position to individuals, as well as commu- 
nities, whose claims upon my friendship and gratitude are 
of the strongest character ; but I tru.'?t there has been 
nothing in my public life which has exposed me to the 
suspicion of being thought capable of sacrificing my 
views of duty to private considerations, however strong 
they may have been, or deep the regrets which they are 
capable of exciting. 

As long as the encouragement of domestic manufac- 
tures is directed to national ends, it shall receive from me 
a temperate but steady support. There is no necessary 
connection between it and the system of appropriations. 
On the contrary, it appears to me that the supposition of 
their dependence upon each other is calculated to excite 



BANK VtXO. l(Jl> 

the prejudices oF the public against both. Tlie former is 
sustained on the grounds of its consistency with the let- 
ter and spirit of the constitution, of its origin being 
traced to the assent of all the parties to the original com- 
pact, and of its having the support and approbation of a 
majority of the people ; on which account it is at least 
entitled to a fair experiment. The suggestions to which 
I have alluded, refer to a forced continuance of the na- 
tional debt, by means of large appropriations, as a sub- 
stitute for the security which the system derives from the 
principles on which it has hitherto been sustained. Such 
a course would certainly indicate either an unreasonable 
distrust of the people, or a consciousness that the system 
does not possess sufficient soundness for its support, if 
left to their voluntary choice and its own merits. Those 
who suppose that any policy thus founded can be long 
upheld in this country, have looked upon its history with 
eyes very different from mine. This policy, like every 
other, must abide the will of the people, who will not be 
likely to allow any device, however specious, to conceal 
its character and tendency. 

In presenting these opinions, I have spoken with the 
freedom and candor which I thought the occasion for 
their expression called for ; and now respectfully return 
the bill which has been under consideration, for your fur- 
ther deliberation and judgment. 

ANDREW JACKSON. 



BANK VETO, 
juLv 10, 1833. 

To the ISenutc : 

The bill to " modify and continue" the act entitled 
" An act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of 
the United States," was presented to me on the 4th of 
July instant. Having considered it with that solemn re- 
gard to the principles of the constitution which the day 
15 



170 Tin: Ti;uF, American. 

was calculated to inspire, and come to the conclusion that 
it ought not to become a law, I herewith return it to the 
Senate, in which it originated, with my objections. 

A bank of the United States is in many respects con- 
venient for the government and useful to the people. 
Entertaining this opinion, and deeply impressed with the 
belief that some of the powers and privileges possessed 
by the existing bank are unauthorized by the constitu- 
tion, subversive of the rights of the states, and dangerous 
to the liberties of the people, I felt it my duty, at an early 
period of my administration, to call the attention of Con- 
gress to the practicability of organizing an institution com- 
bining all its advantages, and obviating these objections, 
I sincerely regret, that in the act before' me, I can per- 
ceive none of those modifications of the bank charter 
which are necessary, in my opinion, to make it compati- 
ble with justice, with sound policy, or with the constitu- 
tion of our country. 

The present corporate body, denominated the Presi- 
dent, Directors, and Company of the Bank of the United 
States, will have existed, at the time this act is intended 
to take effect, twenty years. It enjoys an exclusive pri- 
vilege of banking, under the authority of the general" 
government, a monopoly of its favor and support, and, as 
a necessary consequence, almost a monopoly of the fo- 
reign and domestic exchange. The powers, privileges, 
and favors bestowed upon it, in the original charter, by 
increasing the value of the stock far above its par value, 
operated as a gratuity of many millions to the stock- 
holders. 

An apology may be found for the failure to guard against 
this result, in the consideration that the effect of the origi- 
nal act of incorporation could not be certainly foreseen at 
the time of its passage. The act before me proposes ano- 
ther gratuity to the holders of the same stock, and, in many 
cases, to the same men, of at least seven millions more. 
This donation finds no apology in any uncertainty as to 
the effect of the act. On all hands it is conceded that 
its passage will increase, at least, twenty or thirty per cent, 
more, the market price of the stock, subject to the pay 
ment of the annuity of $200,000 per year secured by the 



BANK VETO. 171 

act; thus adding, in a moment, one fourth to Its par value. 
It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the 
bounty of our government. More than eight millions of 
the stock of this bank are held by foreigners. By this act, 
the American republic proposes virtually to make them a 
present of some millions of dollars. For these gratuities 
to foreigners, and to some of our own opulent citizens, 
the act secures no equivalent whatever. They are the 
certain gains of the present stockholders under the opera- 
tion of this act, after making full dljwance for the pay- 
ment of the bonus. 

Every monopoly, and all exclusive privileges are grant- 
ed at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a 
fiiir equivalent. The many millions which this act pro- 
poses to bestow on the stockholders of the existing bank, 
must come directly or indirectly out of the earnings of 
the American people. It is due to them, therefore, if 
their governinent sell monopolies and exclusive privileges, 
that they should at least exact for them as much as they 
are worth in open market. The value of the monopoly 
in this case may be correctly ascertained. The twenty- 
eight millions of stock would probably be at an advance 
of fifty per cent., and command in the market at least 
forty-two millions of dollars, subject to the payment of 
the present bonus. The present value of the monopoly, 
therefore, is seventeen millions of dollars, and this act 
proposes to sell for three millions, pavable in fifteen annual 
instalments of $200,000 each. 

It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can 
have any claim to the special favor of the government. 
The present corporation has enjoyed its monopoly during 
the period stipulated in the original contract. If we must 
have such a corporation, why should not the government 
sell out the whole stock, and thus secure to the people 
the full market value of the privileges granted? Why 
should not Congress create and sell twenty-eight millions 
of stock, incorporating the purchasers with all the powers 
and privileges secured in this act, and put the premium 
upon the sales into the treasury ? 

But this act does not permit competition in the pur- 
chase of this monopoly. It seems to me predicated on 



172 THF, TRUE AMERKAN. 

the erroneous idea that the present stockhokk-rs liave a 
prescriptive right not only to the favor, but to the boun- 
ty of government. It appears that more than a fourth 
part of the stock is held by foreigners, and the residue is 
held by a few hundred of our own citizens, chiefly of the 
richest class. For their benefit does this act exclude the 
whole American people from competition in the purchase 
of this monopoly, and dispose of it for many millions less 
than it is worth. This seems the less excusable, because 
some of our citizens, not now stockholders, petitioned 
that the door of competition might be opened, and offered 
to take a charter on terms much more favorable to the 
government and country. 

But this proposition, although made by men whose 
aggregate wealth is believed to be equal to all the private 
stock in the existing bank, has been set aside, and the 
bounty of our government is proposed to be again be- 
stowed on the few who have been fortunate enough to 
secure the stock, and at this moment wield the power of 
the existing institution. I cannot perceive the justice or 
policy of this course. If our government must sell mo- 
nopolies, it would seem to be its duty to take nothing less 
than their full value ; and if gratuities must be made once 
in fifteen or twenty years, let them not be bestowed on 
the subjects of a foreign government, nor upon a desig- 
nated and favored class of men in our own country. It 
is but justice and good policy, as far as the nature of the 
case will admit, to confine our favors to our own fellow- 
citizens, and let each in his turn enjoy an opportunity to 
profit by our bounty. In the bearings of the act before 
me, upon these points, I find ample reasons why it should 
not become a law. 

It has been urged as an argument in favor of rechar- 
taring the present bank, that the calling in its loans will 
produce great embarrassment and distress. The time 
allowed to close its concerns is ample ; and if it has been 
well managed, its pressure will be light, and heavy only 
in case its management has been bad. If, therefore, it 
shall produce distress, the fault will be its own ; and it 
would furnish a reason against renewing a power which 
has been so obviously abused. Rut will there ever be a 



BANK VETO. 173 

time when this reason will be less powerful ? To acknow- 
ledge its force, is to admit that the bank ought to be per- 
petual ; and, as a consequence, the present stockholders, 
and those inheriting their rights as successors, be esta- 
blished a privileged order, clothed both with great politi- 
cal power, and enjoying immense pecuniary advantages 
from their connection with the government. 

The modifications of the existing charter, proposed by 
this act, are not such, in my view, as make it consistent 
with the rights of the states or the liberties of the people. 
The qualification of the right of the bank to hold real 
estate, the limitation of its power to establish branches, 
and the power reserved to Congress to forbid the cir- 
culation of small notes, are restrictions comparatively of 
little value or importance. All the objectionable princi- 
ples of the existing corporation, and most of its odious 
features, are retained without alleviation. 

The fourth section provides " that the notes or bills of 
the said corporation, although the same be on the faces 
thereof, respectively, made payable at one place only, 
shall, nevertheless, be received by the said corporation at 
the bank, or at any of the offices of discount and depo- 
sit thereof, if tendered in liquidation or payment of any 
balance or balances due to said corporation, or to such 
office of discount and deposit, from any other incorpo- 
rated bank." This provision secures to the state banks 
a legal privilege in the Bank of the United States, which 
is withheld from all private citizens. If a state bank in 
Philadelphia owe the Bank of the United States, and have 
notes issued by the St. Louis branch, it can pay the debt 
with those notes ; but if a merchant, mechanic or other 
private citizen be in like circumstances, he cannot, by law, 
pay his debts with those notes ; but must sell them at a dis- 
count, or send them to St. Louis to be cashed. This boon 
conceded to the state banks, though not unjust in itself, 
is most odious ; because it does not measure out equal 
justice to the high and the low, the rich and the poor. 
To the extent of its practical effect, it is a bond of union, 
among the banking establishments of the nation, erecting 
them into an interest separate from that of the people ; 
and its necessarv tendencv is to unite the Bank of the 
15* 



174 THE xnUE AMr.RIC.VX. 

United States ana the state banks in any measure which 
may be thought conducive to their common interest. 

The ninth section of the act recognizes principles of 
worse tendency tlian any provision of the present charter. 

It enacts that " the cashier of the bank shall annually 
report to the Secretary of the Treasury the names of all 
the stockholders who are not resident citizens of the Uni- 
ted States ; and, on the application of the trer.sTirer of any 
state, shall make out and transmit to such treasurer a list 
of stockholders residing in, or citizens of such state, 
with the amount of stock owned by each." Although 
this provision, taken in connection with a decision of the 
Supreme Court, surrenders, by its silence, the right of 
the states to tax the banking institutions created by this 
corporation, under the name of branches, throughout the 
Union, it is evidently intended to be construed as a con- 
cession of their riglit to tax that portion of the stock 
which may be held by their own citizens and residents. 
In this light, if the act becomes a law, it will be under- 
stood by the states, who will probably proceed to levy a 
tax equal to that paid upon the stock of the banks incor- 
porated by themselves. In some states that tax is now 
one per cent, either on the capital or on the shares, and 
that may be assumed as the amount which all citizens or 
resident stockholders would be taxed under the operation 
of this act. As it is only the stock held in the states, 
and not that employed between them, which would be 
subject to taxation, and as the names of foreign stock- 
holders are not to be reported to the treasurers of the 
states, it is obvious that the stock held by them will be 
exempt from this burden. Their annual profits will, 
therefore, be one per cent, more than the citizen stock- 
holders ; and, as the annual dividends of the bank may 
be safely estimated at seven per cent., the stock will be 
worth ten or fifteen per cent, more to foreigners than to 
citizens of the United States. To appreciate the effect 
which this state of things will produce, we must take a 
brief review of the operations and present condition of 
the Bank of the United States. 

By documents submitted to Congress at the present 
session, it npppars that on the 1st of Janunry, \9\\^, of 



P.AXK VETO. 175 

the twenty-eight millions of private stock in the corpora- 
tion, $8,405,500 were held by foreigners, mostly of Great 
Britain. The amount of stock held in the nine western 
and south-western states, is §140,200, and in the four 
southern states, is $5,623,100, and in the middle and east- 
ern states, is about .f 13,522,000. The profits of the bank 
in 1831, as shown in a .statement to Congress, were about 
$3,455,598 ; of this, there accrued in the nine western 
states, about $1,640,048; in the four southern states, 
about $352,507 ; and in the middle and eastern states, 
about $1,463,041 As little stock is held in the west, it is 
obvious that the debt of the people in that section, to the 
bank, is principally a debt to the eastern and foreign 
stockholders ; that the interest they pay upon it, is car- 
ried into the eastern states, and into Europe ; and that it 
is a burden upon their industry, and a. drain of their cur- 
rency, which no country can bear without inconvenience 
and occasional distress. To meet this burden, and 
equalize the exchange operations of the bank, the amount 
of specie drawn from those states, through its branches, 
within the last two years, as shown by its official reports, 
was about $6,000,000. More than half a million of this 
amount does not stop in the eastern states, but passes on 
to Europe, to pay the dividends of the foreign stockhold- 
ers. In the principle of taxation recognized by this act, 
the western states find no adequate compensation for this 
perpetual burden on their industry, and drain of their 
currency. The branch bank at Mobile made last year, 
$95,140; yet under the provisions of this act, the state 
of Alabama can raise no revenue from these profitable 
operations, because not a share of the stock is held by 
any of her citizens. Mississippi and Missouri are in the 
same condition, in relation to the branches at Natchez 
and St. Louis ; and such, in a greater or less degree, is 
the condition of every western state. The tendency of 
the plan of taxation which this act proposes, will be to 
place the whole United States in the same relation to fo- 
reign countries which the western states now bear to the 
eastern. When, by a tax on resident stockholders, the 
stock of this bank is made worth ten or fifteen per cent, 
more to foreigners than to residents, most of it will inevi- 
dentlv leave the rountrv. 



176 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

Thus will this provision, in its practical effect, deprive 
the eastern as well as the southern and western states, of 
the means of raising a revenue from the extension of 
business and great profits of the institution. It will make 
the American people debtors to aliens, in nearly the whole 
amount due to this bank, and send across the Atlantic 
from two to five millions of specie every year to pay the 
bank dividends. 

In another of its bearings this provision is fraught with 
danger. Of the tuenty-five directors of this bank, five 
are chosen by the government, and twenty by the citizen 
stockholders. From all voice in these elections, the fo- 
reign stockholders are excluded by the charter. In pro- 
portion, therefore, as the stock is transferred to foreign 
holders, the extent of suffrage in the choice of directors 
is curtailed. 

Already is almost a third of the slock in foreign hands, 
and not represented in elections. It is constantly passing 
out of the country ; and this act will accelerate its de- 
parture. The entire control of the institution would 
necessarily fall into the hands of a fev/ citizen stock- 
holders; and the ease with which the object would be 
accomplished, would be a temptation to designing men 
to secure that control in their own hands, by monopoli- 
zing the remaining stock. There is danger that a pre- 
sident and directors would then be able to elect them- 
selves from year to year, and, without responsibility or 
control, manage the whole concerns of the bank during 
the existence of its charter. It is easy to conceive that 
great evils to our country and its institutions might flow 
from such a concentration of power in the hands of a 
few men, irresponsible to the people. 

Is there no danger to our liberty and independence in 
a bank, that in its nature has so little to bind it to our 
country ? The president of the bank has told us that 
most of the state banks exist by its forbearance. Should 
its influence become concentred, as it may under the 
operation of such an act as this, in the hands of a self- 
elected directory, whose interests are identified with those 
of the foreign stockholder, will there not be cause to 
tremble for the purity of our elections in peace, and for 



BANK VETO. 177 

the independence of our country in war ? Their power 
would be great whenever they might choose to exert it ; 
but if this monopoly were regularly renewed every fifteen 
or twenty years, on terms proposed by themselves, they 
might seldom in peace put forth their strength to influ- 
ence elections or control the affairs of the nation. But 
if any private citizen or public functionary should inter- 
pose to curtail its powers, or prevent a renewal of its pri- 
vileges, it cannot be doubted that he would be made to 
feel its influence 

Should the stock of the bank principally pass into the 
hands of the subjects of a foreign country, and we should 
unfortunately become involved in a war with that coun- 
try, what would be our condition 1 Of the course which 
would be pursued by a bank almost wholly owned by the 
subjects of a foreign power, and managed by those whose 
interests, if not aflections, would run in the same direc- 
tion, there can be no doubt. All its operations within, 
would be in aid of the hostile fleets and armies without. 
Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, 
and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence, it 
would be more formidable and dangerous than the naval 
and military power of the enemy. 

If we must have a bank with private stockholders, 
every consideration of sound policy, and every impulse 
of American feeling, admonishes that it should hQ purely 
American. Its stockholders should be composed exclu- 
sively of our own citizens, who at least ought to be friend- 
ly to our government, and willing to support it in times 
of difficulty and danger. So abundant is domestic capi- 
tal, that competition in subscribing for the stock of local 
banks has recently led almost to riots. To a bank exclu- 
sively of American stockholders, possessing the powers 
and privileges granted by this act, subscriptions for two 
hundred millions of dollars could be readily obtained. In* 
stead of sending abroad the stock of the bank in which 
the government must deposit its funds, and on which it 
must rely to sustain its credit in times of emergency, it 
would rather seem to be expedient to prohibit its sale to 
aliens under penalty of absolute forfeiture. 

It is maintained by the advocates of the bank, that its 



178 Tlir, TRIE AMEniCAN. 

constitutionality, iii all its features, ought to be consi 
dered as settled by precedent, and by the decision of the 
Supreme Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent. 
Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and 
should not be regarded as deciding questions of constitu- 
tional power, except where the acquiescence of the peo- 
ple and the states can be considered as well settled. So 
far from this being the case on this subject, an argument 
against the bank might be based on precedent. One 
Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of a bank ; another, 
in 1811, decided against it. One Congress, in 1815, de- 
cided against a bank ; another, in 1810, decided in its 
favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the pre- 
cedents drawn from that source were equal. If we re- 
sort to the states, the expressions of legislative, judicial, 
and executive opinions against the bank have been pro- 
bably to those in its favor as four to one. There is no- 
thing in precedent, therefore, which,, if its authority 
were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before 
me. 

If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole 
ground of this act, it ought not to control the co-ordinate 
authorities of this government. The Congress, the ex- 
ecutive, and the court, must each for itself be guided by 
its own opinion of the constitution. Each public ofBcer 
who takes an oath to support the constitution, swears 
that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it 
is understood by others. It is as much the duty of the 
House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the Pre- 
sident, to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or 
resolution which may be presented to them for passage 
or approval, as it is of the supreme judges when it may 
be brought before them for judicial decision. The opi- 
nion of the judges has no more authority over Congress 
than the opinion of Congress has over the judges; and 
on that point the President is independent of both. The 
authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be 
permitted to control the Congress or the Executive, when 
acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only 
such influence as the force of their roasonino- mav de- 
serve. 



HANK VETO. 179 

But, in the case relied upon, tliu Supreme Court have 
not decided that all the features of this corporation are 
ronipatiblc with the constitution. It is true that the court 
have said that the law incorporating the bank is a consti- 
tutional exercise of power by Congress. But taking into 
view the whole opinion of the court, and the reasonincr 
by which they have come to that conclusion, I under- 
stand them to have decided that, inasmuch as a bank is 
an appropriate means for carrying into effect the enume- 
rated powers of the general government, therefore the 
law incorporating it is in accordance with that provision 
of the constitution which declares that Congress shall 
have power " to make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying those })owers into execution." 
Having satisfied thenssclves that the word " necessary" in 
the constitution, means " needful," " requisite " " essen- 
tial," " conducive to," and that " a bank" is a conve- 
nient, a useful, and essential instrument in the prosecu- 
tion of the government's " fiscal operations," they con- 
clude that " to use one must be in the discretion of Con- 
gress," and that "the act to incorporate the Bank of the 
United States is a law made in pursuance of the constitu- 
tion ;" " but," say they, " where the law is not prohibit- 
ad, and is really calculated to effect any of the objects 
entrusted to the government, to undertake here to inquire 
into the degree of its necessity, would be to pass the line 
which circumscribes the judicial department, and to tread 
on legislative ground." 

The principle here affirmed is, that the " degree of its 
necessity," involving all the details of a banking institu- 
tion, is a question exclusively for legislative considera- 
tion. A bank is constitutional ; but it is the province of 
the legislature to determine whether this or that particu- 
lar power, privilege, or exemption, " is necessary and 
proper" to enable the bank to discharge its duties to the 
government ; and from their decision there is no appeal 
to the courts of justice. Under the decision of the Su- 
preme Court, therefore, it is the exclusive province of 
Congress and the President to decide whether the parti- 
cular features of this act are necessary and proper, in 
order to enable the bank to perform conveniently and ef- 



180 TJIK riiVh AMEKICA\. 

ficiently the public duties assigned to it as a fiscal agent, 
and therefore constitutional ; or unnecessary and impro- 
per, and therefore unconstitutional. Without comment- 
ing on the general principle affirmed by the Supreme 
Court, let us examine the details of this act in accordance 
with the rule of legislative action which they have laid 
down. It will be found that many of the powers and 
privileges conferred on it, cannot be supposed necessary 
for the purpose for which it is proposed to be created, 
and are not, therefore, means necessary to attain the end 
in view, and consequently not justified by the consti- 
tution. 

The original act of incorporation, section 21st, enacts, 
" that no other bank shall be established, by any future 
law of the United States, during the continuance of the 
corporation hereby created, for which the faith of the 
United States is hereby pledged ; Provided, Congress 
may renew existing charters for banks within the District 
of Columbia, not increasing the capital thereof; and may 
also establish any other bank or banks in said district, 
with capitals not exceeding in the whole six millions of 
dollars, if they shall deem it expedient." This provision 
is continued in force by the act before me, fifteen years 
from the 3d of March, 183G. 

If Congress possessed the power to establish one bank, 
they had power to establish more than one, if, in their 
opinion, two or more banks had been " necessary" to fa- 
cilitate the execution of the powers delegated to them in 
the constitution. If they possess the power to establish 
a second bank, it was a power derived from the constitu- 
tion, to be exercised from time to time, and at any time 
when the interests of the country or the emergencies of 
the government might make it expedient. It was pos- 
sessed by one Congress as well as another, and by all 
Congresses alike, and alike at every session. But the 
Congress of 1816 have taken it away from their success- 
ors for twenty years, and the Congress of 1833 proposed 
to abolish it for fifteen years more. It cannot be " neces- 
sary^' or '^proper'' for Congress to barter away, or divest 
themselves of any of the powers vested in them by the 
constitution to be exercised for the pubJic good. It is 



BAXK VF/rO. IS I 

not " necessary'" to the efficiency of the bank, nor is it 
"proper" in relation to themselves and their successors. 
They may ''properly" use the discretion vested in them, 
but they may not limit the discretion of their successors. 
This restriction on themselves, and grant of a monopoly 
to the bank, is therefore unconstitutional. 

In another point of view, this provision is a palpable 
attempt to amend the constitution by an act of legislation. 
The constitution declares that "the Congress shall have 
power to exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases what- 
soever," over the District of Columbia. Its constitutional 
power, therefore, to establish banks in the District of 
Columbia, and increase their capital at will, is unlimited 
and uncontrollable by any other power than that which 
gave authority to the constitution. Yet this act declares 
that Congress shall not increase the capital of existing 
banks, nor create other banks with capitals exceeding in 
the whole six millions of dollars. The constitution de- 
clares that Congress shall have power to exercise exclu- 
sive legislation over this district " in all cases whatsoever ;" 
and this act declares they shall not. Which is the supreme 
law of the land? This provision cannot be "necessary," 
or "proper " or "constitutional ," unless the absurdity be 
admitted, that, whenever it be " necessary and proper," 
in the opinion of Congress, they have a right to barter 
away one portion of the powers vested in them by the 
constitution, as a means of executing the rest. 

On two subjects only, does the constitution recognize 
in Congress the power to grant exclusive privileges or 
monopolies. It declares that " Congress shall have pow- 
er to promote the progress of science and useful arts by 
securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the 
exclusive right to their respective writings and discove- 
ries." 

Out of this express delegation of power, have grown 
our laws of patents and copy-rights. As the constitution 
expressly delegates to Congress the power to grant exclu- 
sive privileges, in these cases, as the means of executing 
the substantive power " to promote the progress of sci- 
ence and useful arts," it is consistent with the fair rules 
of construction, to conclude that such a power was not 
10 



182 THE rnvr. American. 

inttnded to be granted as a means of accomplishing any 
other end. On every other subject which comes within 
the scope of congressional power, there is an ever-living 
discretion in the use of proper means, v/hich cannot be 
restricted or abolished without an amendment of the con- 
stitution. Every act of Congress, therefore, which at- 
tempts by grants or monopolies, or sales of exclusive privi- 
leges for a limited time, or a time without limit, to restrict 
or extinguish its own discretion in the choice of means to 
execute its delegated powers, is equivalent to a legisla- 
tive amendment of the constitution, and palpably uncon- 
stitutional. 

This act authorizes and encourages transfers of its 
stock to foreigners, and grants them an exemption from 
all state and national taxation. So far from being " neces- 
sary and i)rojicr" that the bank should possess this power 
to )nake it a safe and efficient agent of the government in 
its fiscal operations, it is calculated to convert the Bank 
of the United States into a foreign bank, to impoverish our 
people in time of peace, to disseminate a foreign influ- 
ence through every section of the republic, and in war, 
to endanger our independence. 

The several states reserved the power, at the formation 
of the constitution, to regulate and control titles and 
transfers of real property ; and most, if not all of them, 
have laws disqualifying aliens from acquiring or holding 
lands within their limits. But this act, in disregard of 
the undoubted right of the states to prescribe such dis- 
qualifications, gives to aliens, stockholders in this bank, 
an interest and title, as members of the corporation, to 
all the real property it may acquire within any of the 
states of this Union. This privilege granted to aliens is 
not " nrxessarif to enable the bank to perform its public 
duties, nor in any sense '^proper," because it is vitally 
subversive of the rights of the states. 

The government of the United States have no consti- 
tutional power to purchase lands within the states, except 
"for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock- 
yards and other needful buildings;" and even for these 
objects, only " by the consent of the legislature of the 
state in which the same shnl! be." Bv mnkins themselves 



BANK VETO. 183 

stockholders in the bank, and granting to the corporation 
the power to purchase lands for other purposes, they as- 
sume a power not granted in the constitution, and grant 
to others what they do not themselves possess. It is not 
" necessary" to the receiving, safe keeping, or transmis- 
sion of the funds of the government, that the bank should 
possess this power; and it is not "proper^' that Congress 
should thus enlarge the powers delegated to them in the 
constitution. 

The old Bank of the United States possessed a capital 
of only eleven millions of dollars, which was found fully 
suflicient to enable it, with despatch and safety, to perform 
all the functions required of it by the government. The 
capital of the present bank is thirty-five millions of dol- 
lars, at least twenty-four more than experience has proved 
to be " necessary" to enable a bank to perform its public 
functions. The public debt which existed during the 
period of the old bank, and on the establishment of the 
new, has been nearly paid oft', and our revenue will soon 
be reduced. This increase of capital is therefore not for 
public, but for private purposes. 

The governmc'iit is the only "^ proper" judge where its 
agents should reside and keep their offices, because it 
best knows where their presence will be " necessary." 
It cannot, therefore, be " necessary" or ''proper" to au- 
thorize the bank to locate branches where it pleases to 
perform the public service, without consulting the gov- 
ernment, and contrary to its will. The principle laid 
down by the Supreme Court concedes that Congress can- 
not establish a bank for purposes of private speculation 
and gain, but only as a means of executing the delegated 
powers of the general government. By the same princi- 
ple, a branch bank cannot constitutionally be established 
for other than public purposes. The power which this 
act gives to establish two branches in any state, without 
the injunction or request of the government, and for oth- 
er than public purposes, is not '■'necessary" to the due 
cxcculion of the powers delegated to Congress. 

The bonus which is exacted from the bank is a confes- 
sion, upon the face of the act, that the powers granted by 
it are greater than are "necessary" to its character of a 



1«4 TlIK lUtU A.\li;IiK'A.\. 

fiscal agent. The government does not tax its officer:- 
and agents for the privilege of serving it. The bonus 
of a million and a half required by the original charter, 
and that of three millions proposed by this act, are not 
exacted for the privilege of giving " the necessary facili- 
ties for transferring the public funds from place to place, 
within the United States or the territories thereof, and for 
distributing the same in payment of the public creditors, 
without charging commission or claiming allowance on 
account of the difference of exchange," as required by 
the act of incorporation, but for something more benefi- 
cial to the stockholders. The original act declares, that 
it (the bonus) is granted " in consideration of the exclu- 
sive privileges and benefits conferred by this act upon the 
said bank,'" and the act before me declares it to be " in 
consideration of the exclusive benefits and privileges con- 
tinued by this act to the said corporation for fifteen years 
as aforesaid." It is, therefore, for " exclusive privileges 
and benefits" conferred for their own use and emolument, 
and not for the advantage of the government, that a bo- 
nus is exacted. These surplus powers, for which the bank 
is required to pay, cannot surely be " ncccssm-i/" to make 
it the fiscal agent of the treasury. If they were, the 
exaction of a bonus for them would not be " jyvojier." 

It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of 
executing the constitutional power " to coin money, and 
regulate the value thereof" Congress have established a 
mint to coin money, and passed laws to regulate the value 
thereof The money so coined, with the value so regu- 
lated, and such foreign coins as Congress may adopt, are 
the only currency known to the constitution. But if they 
have other power to regulate the currency, it was confer- 
red to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transfer- 
red to a corporation. If the bank be established for that 
purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent, 
Congress have parted with their power for a term of years, 
during which the constitution is a dead letter. It is nei- 
ther necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power 
to such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional. 

By its silence, considered in connection with the de- 
cision of the Supreme Court, in the case of McCulloch 



BANK VETO. 185 

against the state of Maryland, this act takes tVoni the 
states the power to tax a portion oF the banking business 
carried on within their limits, in subversion of one of the 
strongest barriers which secured them against federal en- 
croachments. Banking, like farming, manufacturing, or 
any other occupation or profession, is a business, the right 
to follow which is not originally derived from the laws. 
Every citizen, and every company of cntizens, in all of 
our states, possessed the right, until the state legislatures 
deemed it good policy to prohibit private backing by law. 
If the prohibitory state laws were now repealed, every citi- 
zen would again possess the right. The state banks are 
a qualified restoration of the right which has been taken 
away by the laws against banking, guarded by such pro- 
visions and limitations as in the opinion of the state legis- 
latures the public interest requires. These corporations, 
unless there be an exemption in their charter, are, like 
private bankers and banking companies, subject to state 
taxation. The manner in which these taxes shall be laid, 
depends wholly on legislative discretion. It may be upon 
tiie bank, upon the stock, upon the profits, or in any other 
mode which the sovereign power shall will. 

Upon the formation of the constitution the states guard- 
ed their taxing power with peculiar jealousy. They 
surrendered it only as regards imports and exports. In 
relation to every other object within their jurisdiction, 
whether persons, property, business, or professions, it was 
secured in as ample a manner as it was before possessed. 
All persons, though United States' officers, are liable to 
a poll tax by the states within which they reside. The 
lands of the United States are liable to the usual land tax, 
except in the new states, from whom agreements that they 
will not tax unsold lands are exacted when they are admitted 
into the Union ; horses, wagons, any beasts or vehicles, 
tools or property belonging to private citizens, though 
employed in the service of the United States, are subject 
to state taxation. Every private business, whether car- 
ried on by an officer of the general government or not, 
whether it be mixed with public concerns or not, even if 
it be carried on by the United States itself, separately or 
in partnership, falls within the scope of the taxing power 
of the state. Nothing comes more fully within it than 
IG* 



186 THE TRUE AMERICAN'. 

banks, and the business of banking, by whomsoever in 
stituted and carried on. Over this whole subject matter, 
it is just as absolute, unlimited, and uncontrollablej as if 
the constitution never had been adopted, because, in the 
formation of that instrument, it was reserved without 
qualification. 

The principle is conceded that the states cannot right- 
fully tax the operations of the general government. They 
cannot tax the money of the government deposited in the 
state banks, nor the agency of those banks in remitting 
it ; but will any man maintain that their mere selection 
to perform this public service for the general government, 
would exempt the state banks and their ordinary business 
from state taxation ? Had the United States, instead of 
establishing a bank at Philadelphia, employed a private 
banker to keep and transmit their funds, would it have 
deprived Pennsylvania of the right to tax his bank and 
his usual banking operations? It will not be pretended. 
Upon what principle, then, are the banking establishments 
of the Bank of the United States, and their usual bank- 
ing operations, to be exempted from taxation? It is not 
their public agency or the deposits of the government 
which the states claim a right to tax, but their banks and 
their banking powers, instituted and exercised within 
state jurisdiction for their private emolument, those pow- 
ers and privileges for which they pay a bonus, and which 
the states tax in their own banks. The exercise of these 
powers within a state, no matter by whom or under what 
authority, whether by private citizens in their original 
right, by corporate bodies created by the states, by fo- 
reigners or the agents of foreign governments located 
within their limits, forms a legitimate object of state tax- 
ation. From this and like sources, from the persons, 
property, and business that are found residing, located, or 
carried on under their jurisdiction, must the states, since 
the surrender of their right to raise a revenue from im- 
ports and exports, draw all the money necessary for the 
support of their governments and the maintenance of 
their independence. There is no more appropriate sub- 
ject of taxation than banks, banking, and bank stocks, 
and none to which the states ought more pertinaciously 
to cljngf. 



BANK VETU. 187 

It cannot be necessary to the character of the bank as 
a fiscal agent of the government, that its private business 
should be exempted from that taxation to which all state 
banks are liable ; nor can I conceive it "proper" that the 
substantive and most essential powers reserved by the 
states shall be thus attacked and annihilated as a means 
of executing the powers delegated to the general govern- 
ment. It may be safely assumed that none of those 
sages who had an agency in forming or adopting our con- 
stitution, ever imagined that any portion of the taxing 
power of the states, not prohibited to them nor delegated 
to Congress, was to be swept away and annihilated as 
a means of executing certain powers delegated to Con- 
gress. 

If our power over means is so absolute that the Su- 
preme Court will not call in question the constitutionali- 
ty of an act of Congress, the subject of which " is not 
prohibited, and is really calculated to effect any of the 
objects entrusted to the government," although, as in the 
case before me, it takes away powers expressly granted 
to Congress, and riglitsscrupulously reserved to the states, 
it becomes us to proceed in our legislation with the ut- 
most caution. Though not directly, our own powers and 
the rights of the states may be indirectly legislated away 
in the use of means to execute substantive powers. We 
may not enact tliat Congress shall not have the power of 
exclusive legislation over the District of Columbia, but 
we may pledge the faith of the United States that, as a 
means of executing other powers, it shall not be exerci- 
sed for twenty years or forever. We may not pass an act 
prohibiting the states to tax the banking business carried 
on within their limits, but we may, as a means of execu- 
ting power over other objects, place that business in the 
hands of our agents, and then declare it exempt irom state 
taxation in their hands. Thus may our own powers and 
the rights of the states, which we cannot directly curtail 
or invade, be frittered away and extinguished in the use 
of means employed by us to execute other powers. That 
a Bank of the United States, competent to all the duties 
which may be required by the government, might be so 
organized as not to infringe on our own delegated pow- 



1S8 THE TRUE AaiEKltAiN. 

ers, or the reserved rights of the states, I do not eiiter- 
taiii a doubt. Had the executive been called upon to 
furnish the project of such an institution, the duty would 
have been cheerfully performed. In the absence of such 
a call, it is obviously proper that he should confine him- 
self to pointing out those prominent features in the act 
presented, which, in his opinion, make it incompatible 
with the constitution and sound policy. A general dis- 
cussion will now take place, eliciting new light, and set- 
tling important principles ; and a new Congress, elected 
in the midst of such discussion, and furnishing an equal 
representation of the people according to the last census, 
will bear to the capitol the verdict of public opinion, and, 
I doubt not, bring this important question to a satisfac- 
tory result. 

Under such circumstances, the bank comes forward 
and asks a renewal of its charter for a term of fifteen 
years, upon conditions which not only operate as a gra- 
tuity to the stockholders of many millions of dollars, 
but will sanction any abuses and legalize any encroach- 
ments. 

Suspicions are entertained, and charges are made, of 
gross abuse and violation of its charter. An investiga- 
tion unv.'illingly conceded, and so restricted in time as 
necessarily to make it incomplete and unsatisfactory, dis- 
closed enough to excite suspicion and alarm. In the 
practices of the principal bank partially unveiled, in the 
absence of important witnesses, and in numerous charges 
confidently made, and as yet wholly uninvestigated, there 
was enough to induce a majority of the committee of 
investigation, a committee which was selected from the 
most able and honorable members of the House of Re- 
presentatives, to recommend a suspension of further ac- 
tion upon the bill, and a prosecution of the inquiry. As 
the charter had yet four years to run, and as a renewal 
now was not necessary to the successful prosecution of 
its business, it was to have been expected that the bank 
itself, conscious of its purity, and proud of its character, 
would have withdrawn its application for the present, and 
demanded the severest scrutiny into all its transactions. 
In their declining to do so, there seems to be an additional 



UANK VLTO. 189 

reason why the functionaries of the government should 
proceed with less haste and more caution in the renewal 
of their monopoly. 

The bank is professedly established as an agent of the 
executive branches of the government, and its constitu- 
tionality is maintained on that ground. Neither upon the 
propriety of present action, nor upon the provisions of 
this act, was the executive consulted. It has had no op- 
portunity to say that it neither needs nor wants an agent 
clothed with such powers, and favored by such exemptions. 
There is nothing in its legitimate functions which make 
it necessary or proper. Whatever interest or influence, 
whether public or private, has given birth to this act, it 
cannot be found either in the wishes or necessities of the 
executive department, by which present action is deemed 
premature, and the powers conferred upon its agent 
not only unnecessary, but dangerous to the government 
and country. 

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often 
bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. 
Distinctions in society will always exist under every just 
government. Equality of talents, of education, or of 
wealth, cannot be produced by human institutions. In 
the full enjoyment of the gifts of heaven, and the fruits 
of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is 
equally entitled to protection by law. But when the laws 
undertake to add to these natural and just advantages, 
artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and ex- 
clusive privileges, to make the rich richer, and the potent 
more powerful, the humble members of society, the farm- 
ers, mechanics, and laborers, who have neither the time 
nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have 
a right to complain of the injustice of their government. 
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils 
exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to 
equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its 
favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the 
poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act 
l)efore me, there seems to be a wide and unnecessary 
departure from these just principles. 

Nor is our government to be maintained, or our Union 



190 THE TRUE AMElllCAN. 

preserved, by invasion of the rights and powers of the 
several states. In thus attempting to make our general 
government strong, we make it weak. Its true strength 
consists in leaving individuals and states, as much as pos- 
sible, to themselves ; in making itself felt, not in its pow- 
er, but in its beneficence, not in its control, but in its 
protection, not in binding the states more closely to the 
centre, but leaving each to move unobstructed, in its 
proper orbit. 

Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the diffi- 
culties our government now encounters, and most of the 
dangers which impend over our Union, have sprung from 
an abandonment of the legitimate objects of government 
by our national legislation, and the adoption of such prin- 
ciples as are embodied in this act. Many of our rich 
men have not been content with equal protection and 
equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer 
by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their de- 
sires, we have, in the results of our legislation, arrayed 
section against section, interest against interest, and man 
against man, in a fearful commotion, which threatens to 
shake the foundations of our Union. It is time to pause 
in our career, to review our principles, and, if possible, 
revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise 
which distinguished the sages of the revolution and the 
fathers of our Union. If we cannot at once, in justice 
to the interests vested under improvident legislation, make 
our government what it ought to be, we can at least take 
a stand against all new grants of monopolies and exclu- 
sive privileges, against any prostitution of our govern- 
ment to the advancement of the few at the expense of 
the many, and in favor of compromise and gradual re- 
form in our codeof laws and system of political economy. 

I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained 
by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy ; if 
not, I shall find in the motives which impel me, ample 
grounds for contentment and peace. In the difiiculties 
which surround us, and the dangers which threaten our 
institutions, there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm. 
For relief and deliverance, let us firmly rely on that kind 
Providence which, I am sure, watches with peculiar care 



Jackson's sf.cond inaurtral addres!^. 19! 

over the destinies of our republic, and on the intelligence 
and wisdom of our countrymen. Through His abun- 
dant goodness, and their patriotic devotion, our liberty 
and union will be preserved. 



JACKSON'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 4, 1833. 

Fellow-Citizens : 

The will of the American people, expressed through 
their unsolicited suffrages, calls me before you to pass 
through the solemnities preparatory to taking upon myself 
the duties of President of the United States for another 
term. For their approbation of my public conduct, 
through a period which has not been without its difficul- 
ties, and for this renewed expression of their confidence 
in my good intentions, I am at a loss for terms adequate 
to the expression of my gratitude. It shall be displayed, 
to the extent of my humble abilities, in continued efforts 
so to administer the government, as to preserve their 
liberty and promote their happiness. 

So many events have occurred within the last four 
years, which have necessarily called forth, sometimes under 
circumstances the most delicate and painful, my views of 
the principles and policy which ought to be pursued by 
the general government, that I need, on this occasion, but 
allude to a few leading considerations, connected with 
some of them. 

The foreign policy adopted by our government soon 
after the formation of our present constitution, and very 
generally pursued by successive administrations, has been 
crowned with almost complete success, and has elevated 
our character among the nations of the earth. To do 
justice to all, and to submit to wrong from none, has been, 
during my administration', its governing maxim ; and so 
happy has been its results, that we are not only at peace 



ID'v! THC TlllL AAIKRICAX. 

with all the world, but have few causes of controversy ; 
and tliose of minor importance, remaining unadjusted. 

In the domestic policy of this government, there are 
two objects which especially deserve the attention of the 
people and their representatives, and which have been, and 
will continue to be, the subjects of my unceasing solici- 
tude. They are, the preservation of the rights of the 
states and the integrity of the Union. 

These great objects are necessarily connected, and can 
only be attained by an enlightened exercise of the pow- 
ers of each within its appropriate sphere, in conformity to 
the public will constitutionally expressed. To this end, 
it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic 
submission to the laws constitutionally enacted, and 
thereby promote and strengthen a proper confidence in 
those institutions of the several states and of the United 
States, which the people themselves have ordained for 
their own government. 

My experience in public concerns, and the observation 
of a life somewhat advanced, confirm the opinions long 
since imbibed by me, that the destruction of our state 
governments, or the annihilation of their control over the 
local concerns of the people, would lead directly to revo- 
lution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and military 
domination. In proportion , therefore, as the general go- 
vernment encroaches upon the rights of the states, in the 
same proportion does it impair its own power, and detract 
from its ability to fulfil the purposes of its creation. So- 
lemnly impressed with these considerations, my country- 
men will ever find me ready to exercise my constitutional 
powers in arresting measures which may directly or indi- 
rectly encroach upon the rights of the states, or tend to 
consolidate all political power in the general government. 
But, of equal, and indeed of incalculable importance, is 
the union of these states, and the sacred duty of all to 
contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of the 
general government in the exercise of its just powers. 
You have been wisely admonished to " accustom yovr- 
selves to think and speak of the Union as of the palla- 
dium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for 
it? preserrntion with jealous anxietv, discountenancing 



Jackson's second inaugural address. 193 

whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any 
event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the 
first dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of 
our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
which now link together the various parts." Without 
union our independence and liberty would never have 
been achieved — without union they never can be main- 
tained. Divided in twenty-four, or even a smaller num- 
ber of separate communities, we shall see our interna! 
trade burdened with numberless restraints and exac- 
tions ; communication between distant points and sections 
obstructed, or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge 
with blood the fields they now till in peace ; the mass of 
our people borne down and impoverished by taxes to sup- 
port armies and navies ; and military leaders at the head 
of their victorious legions becoming our lawgivers and 
judges. The loss of liberty, of all good government, of 
peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a 
dissolution of the Union. In supporting it, therefore, we 
support all that is dear to the freeman and the philan- 
thropist. ^> 

The time at which I stand before you is full of inte- 
rest. The eyes of all nations are fixed on our republic. 
The event of the existing crisis will be decisive in the 
opinion of mankind of the practicability of our federal 
system of government. Great is the stake placed in our 
hands; great is the responsibility which must rest upon 
the people of the United States. Let us realize the im- 
portance of the attitude in which we stand before the 
world. Let us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let 
us extricate our country from the dangers which .sur- 
round it, and learn wisdom from the lessons they in- 
culcate. 

17 



194 THE TRUK AMERICAN. 

PROTEST, 
APRIL 15, 1834. 

To the Senate of the United States : 

It appears by the published journal of the Senate, that 
on the 26th of December last, a resolution was offered by 
a member of the Senate, which, after a protracted debate, 
was on the twenty-eighth day of March last modified by 
the mover, and passed by the votes of twenty-six Sena- 
tors out of forty-six, who were present and voted, in the 
following words, viz : 

" Resolved, That the President, in the late executive 
proceeding in relation to the public revenue, has assumed 
upon himself authority and power not conferred by the 
constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." 

Having had the honor, through the voluntary suffrages 
of the American people, to fill the office of President 
of the United States during the period which may be 
presumed to have been referred to in this resolution, it is 
sufficiently evident that the censure it inflicts was intend- 
ed for myself Without notice, unheard and untried, I 
thus find myself charged on the records of the Senate, 
and in a form hitherto unknown in our history, with the 
high crime of violating the laws and constitution of my 
country. 

It can seldom be necessary for any department of the 
government, when assailed in conversation or debate, or 
by the strictures of the press or of popular assemblies, to 
step out of its ordinary path for the purpose of vindica- 
ting its conduct, or of pointing out any irregularity or 
injustice in the manner of the attack. But when the 
chief executive magistrate is, by one of the most impor- 
tant branches of the government, in its official capacity, 
in a public manner, and by its recorded sentence, but 
without precedent, competent authority, or just cause, de- 
clared guilty of a breach of the laws and constitution, 
it is due to his station, to public opinion, and to proper 
self-respect, that the officer thus denounced should prompt- 
ly expose the wrong which has been done. 



PROTEST. 195 

In the present case, moreover, there is even a stronger 
necessity for such a vindication. By an express provision 
of the constitution, before the President of the United 
States can enter on the execution of his office, he is re- 
quired to take an oath or affirmation in the following 
words : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 
execute the office of President of the United States ; and 
will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and de- 
fend the constitution of the United States." 

The duty of defending so far as in him lies, the integ- 
nty of the constitution would indeed have resulted from 
the very nature of his office ; but by thus expressing it in 
the official oath or affirmation, which, in this respect, dif- 
fers from that of every other functionary, the founders of 
our republic have attested their sense of its importance, 
and have given to it a peculiar solemnity and force. 
Bound to the performance of this duty by the oath I have 
taken, by the strongest obligations of gratitude to the 
American people, and by the ties which unite my every 
earthly interest with the welfare and glory of my country ; 
and perfectly convinced that the discussion and passage 
of the above-mentioned resolution were not only unau- 
thorized by the constitution, but in many respects repug- 
nant to its provisions and subversive of the rights secured 
by it to other co-ordinate departments, I deem it an im- 
perative duty to maintain the supremacy of that sacred 
instrument, and the immunities of the department intrust- 
ed to my care, by all means consistent with my own law- 
ful powers, with the rights of others, and with the genius 
of our civil institutions, To this end, I have caused this, 
my solemn protest against the aforesaid proceedings, to 
be placed on the files of the executive department, and 
to be transmitted to the Senate. 

It is alike due to the subject, the Senate, and the peo- 
ple, that the views which I have taken of the proceedings 
referred to, and which compel me to regard them in the 
light which has been mentioned, should be exhibited at 
length, and with the freedom and firmness wliich are re- 
quired by an occasion so unprecedented and peculiar. 

Under the constitution of the United States, the pow- 



196 THE TUUE AMLIIICAN. 

ers and functions of the various departments of the fed- 
eral government, and their responsibilities for violation 
or neglect of duty, are clearly defined or result by neces- 
sary inference. The legislative power, subject to the qua- 
lified negative of the President, is vested in the Congress 
of the United States, composed of the Senate and House 
of Representatives. The e.KCCutive power is vested ex- 
clusively in the President, except that in the conclusion 
of treaties and in certain appointments to office, he is to 
act with the advice and consent of the Senate. The judi- 
cial power is vested exclusively in the Supreme and other 
courts of the United States, except in cases of impeach- 
ment, for which purpose the accusatory power is vested 
in the House of Representatives, and that of hearing and 
determining in the Senate. But although, for the special 
purposes which have been mentioned, there is an occa- 
sional intermixture of the powers of the different depart- 
ments, yet, with these exceptions, each of the three great 
departments is independent of the others in its sphere of 
action ; and when it deviates from that sphere, is not re- 
sponsible to the others, further than it is expressly made 
so in the constitution. In every other respect, each of 
them is the co-equal of the other two, and all are the ser- 
vants of the American people, without power or right to 
control or censure each other in the service of their 
common superior, save only in the manner and to the 
degree which that superior has prescribed. 

The responsibilities of the President are numerous and 
weighty. He is liable to impeachment for high crimes 
and misdemeanors, and, on due conviction, to removal 
from office, and perpetual disqualification ; and notwith- 
standing such conviction, he may also be indicted and 
punished according to law. He is also liable to the pri- 
vate action of any party who may have been injured by 
his illegal mandates or instructions, in the same manner 
and to the same extent as the humblest functionary. In 
addition to the responsibilities which may thus be en- 
forced by impeachment, criminal prosecution, or suit at 
law, he is also accountable at the bar of public opinion, 
for every act of his administration. Subject only to 
the restraints of truth and justice, the free people of the 



PROTEST. 197 

United States have the undoubted right, as individuals or 
collectively, orally or in writing, at such times, and in 
such language and form as they may think proper, to dis- 
cuss his official conduct, and to express and promulgate 
their opinions concerning it. Indirectly, also, his con- 
duct may come under review in either branch of the 
legislature, or in the Senate when acting in its executive 
capacity, and so far as the executive or legislative pro- 
ceedings of these bodies may require it, it may be ex- 
amined by them. These are believed to be the proper 
and only modes in which the President of the United 
States is to be held accountable for his official conduct. 

Tested by these principles, the resolution of the Se- 
nate is wholly unauthorized by the constitution, and in 
derogation of its entire spirit. It assumes that a single 
branch of the legislative department may, for the purposes 
of a public censure, and without any view to legislation 
or impeachment, take up, consider, and decide upon the 
official acts of the executive. But in no part of the con- 
stitution is the President subjected to any such responsi- 
bility ; and in no part of that instrument is any such 
power conferred on either branch of the legislature. 

The justice of these conclusions will be illustrated and 
confirmed by a brief analysis of the powers of the Se- 
nate, and a comparison of their recent proceedings with 
those powers. 

The high functions assigned by the constitution to the 
Senate, are in their nature either legislative, executive or 
judicial. It is only in the exercise of its judicial pow- 
ers, when sitting as a court for the trial of impeachments, 
that the Senate is expressly authorized and necessarily 
required to consider and decide upon the conduct of the 
President or any other public officer. Indirectly, how- 
ever, as has already been suggested, it may frequently be 
called on to perform that office. Cases may occur in 
the course of its legislative or executive proceedings, in 
which it may be indispensable to the proper exercise of 
its powers, that should inquire into, and decide upon, the 
conduct of the President or other public officers : and in 
every other such case, its constitutional right to do so is 
cheerfully conceded. But to authorize the Senate to 
17* 



198 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

enter on such a task in its legislative or executive capa- 
city, the inquiry must actually grow out of, and tend to 
some legislative or executive action ; and the decision 
nhen expressed, must take the form of some appropriate 
legislative or executive act. 

The resolution in question was introduced, discussed, 
and passed, not as a joint, but as a separate resolution. 
It asserts no legislative power ; proposes no legislative 
action ; and neither possesses the form nor any of the 
attributes of a legislative measure. It does not appear 
to have been entertained or passed, with any view or 
expectation of its issuing in a law or joint resolution, or 
in any other legislative action. 

While wanting both the form and substance of a legis 
, lative measure, it is equally manifest that the resolution 
was not justified by any of the executive powers con- 
ferred upon the Senate. These powers relate exclusively 
to the consideration of treaties and nomination to office, 
and they are exercised in secret session, and with closed 
doors. This resolution does not apply to any treaty or 
nomination, and was passed in a public session. 

Nor does this proceeding in any way belong to that 
class of incidental resolutions which relate to the officers 
of the Senate, to their chamber and other appurtenances, 
or to subjects of order, and other matters of like nature 
— in all which either house may lawfully proceed, with- 
out any co-operation with the other, or with the Pre- 
sident. 

On the contrary, the whole phraseology and sense of 
the resolution seem to be judicial. Its essence, true 
character, and only practical effect, are to be found in 
the conduct which it charges upon the President, in the 
judgment which it pronounces on that conduct. The 
resolution, therefore, though discussed and adopted by 
the Senate in its legislative capacity, is, in its office and 
in all its characteristics, essentially judicial. 

That the Senate possess a high judicial power, and 
that instances may occur in which the President of the 
United States will be amenable to it, is undeniable. But 
under the ])rovisions of the constitution, it would seem 
to be equally plain that neither the President nor any 



PROTEST. 199 

Other officer can be rightfully subject to the operation of 
the judicial power of the Senate, except in the cases and 
under the forms prescribed by the constitution. 

The constitution declares that " the President, Vice- 
President, and all civil officers of the United States, 
shall be removed from office on impeachment for and 
conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and 
misdemeanors ;" that the House of Representatives 
" shall have the sole power of impeachments ;" that the 
Senate " shall have the sole power to try all impeach- 
ments ;" that " when sitting for that purpose, they shall 
be on oath or affirmation ; that " when the President of 
the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside ;" 
that " no person shall be convicted without the concur- 
rence of two thirds of the members present;" and that 
judgment shall not extend further than " to removal 
from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States." 

The resolution above quoted, charges in substance, 
that in certain proceedings, relating to the public reve- 
nue, the President has usurped authority and power not 
conferred upon him by the constitution and laws, and 
that in doing so he violated both. Any such act consti- 
tutes a high crime — one of the highest, indeed, which 
the President can commit — a crime which justly exposes 
to impeachment by the House of Representatives, and 
upon due conviction to removal from office, and to the 
complete and immutable disfranchisement prescribed by 
the constitution. 

The resolution, then, was in substance an impeach- 
ment of the President ; and in its passage, amounts to a 
declaration by a majority of the Senate, that he is guilty 
of an impeachable offence. As such, it is spread upon 
the journals of the Senate — published to the nation and 
to the world — made part of our enduring archives — and 
incorporated in the history of the age. The punishment 
of removal from office and future disqualification, does 
not, it is true, follow this decision : nor would it have fol- 
lowed the like decision, if the regular forms of proceed- 
ing had been pursued, because the requisite number did 
not concur in the result. But the moral influence of a 



200 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

solemn declaration, by a majority of the Senate, that the 
accused is guilty of the offence charged upon'him, has 
been as effectually secured, as if the like declaration had 
been made upon an impeachment expressed in the same 
terms. Indeed, a greater practical effect has been gained, 
because the votes given for the resolution, though not 
sufhcic.nl to authorize a judgment of guilty on an im- 
peachment, were numerous enough to carry that reso- 
lution. 

That the resolution does not expressly allege that the 
assumption of power and authority, which it condemns, 
was intentional and corrupt, is no answer to the preceding 
view of its character and effect. 

The act thus condemned, necessarily implies volition 
and design in the individual to whom it is imputed, and 
being unlawful in its character, the legal conclusion is 
that it was prompted by improper motives, and committed 
with an unlawful intent. The charge is not of a mistake 
in the exercise of supposed powers, but of the assump- 
tion of powers not conferred by the constitution and laws, 
but in derogation of both, and nothing is suggested to 
excuse or palliate the turpitude of the act. In the ab- 
sence of any such excuse or palliation, there is only room 
for one inference ; and that is, that the intent was unlaw- 
ful and corrupt. Besides, the resolution not only con- 
tains no mitigating suggestion, but, on the contrary, it 
holds up the act complained of as justly obnoxious to 
censure and reprobation ; and thus as distinctly stamps it 
^vith impurity of motive, as if the strongest epithets had 
been used. 

The President of the United States, therefore, has 
been, by a majority of his constitutional triers, accused 
and found guilty of an impeachable offence ; but in no 
part of this proceeding have the directions of the consti- 
tution been observed. 

The impeachment, instead of being preferred and pro- 
secuted by the House of Representatives, originated in 
the Senate, and was prosecuted without the aid or con- 
currence of the other house. The oath or afhrmation 
prescribed by the constitution, was not taken by the Se- 
nators ; the chief justice did not preside ; no notice of 



piioxEsr. ;201 

tlie charge was given to the accused ; and no opportunity 
afforded him to respond to the accusation, to meet his 
accusers face to face, to cross-examine the witnesses, to 
procure counteracting testimony, or to be heard in his 
defence. The safeguards and formalities which the con- 
stitution has cormected with the power of impeachment, 
were doubtless supposed by the framers of that instru- 
ment, to be essential to the protection of the public ser- 
vant, to the attainment of justice, and to the order, impar- 
tiality, and dignity of the procedure. These safeguards 
and formalities were not only practically disregarded, in 
the commencement and conduct of these proceedings, 
but, in their result, I find myself convicted by less than two 
thirds of the members present, of an impeachable offence. 
In vain may it be alleged in defence of this proceed- 
ing, that the form of the resolution is not that of an im- 
peachment or of judgment thereupon — that the punish- 
ment prescribed in the constitution does not follow its 
adoption, or that in this case no impeachment is to be e.\- 
pected from the House of Representatives. It is because 
it did not assume the form of an impeachment, that it is 
the more palpably repugnant to the constitution ; for it is 
through that form only that the President is judicially 
responsible to the Senate ; and though neither removal 
from office or future disqualification ensues, yet it is not 
to be presumed, that the framers of the constitution con- 
sidered either or both of these results as constituting the 
whole of the punishment they prescribed. The judg- 
ment of guilty by the highest tribunal in the Union ; the 
stigma it would inflict on the offender, his family and 
fame; and the perpetual record on the journal, handing 
down to future generations the story of his disgrace, were 
doubtless regarded by them as the bitterest portions, if 
not the very essence, of that punishment. So far, there- 
fore, as some of its most material parts are concerned, 
the passage recording and promulgation of the resolution 
are an attempt to bring them on the President, in a man- 
ner unauthorized by the constitution. To shield him 
and other officers who are liable to impeachment, from 
consequences so momentous, except when really merited 
by official delinquencies, the constitution has most cau- 



302 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tiously guarded the whole process of impeachment. A 
majority of the House of Representatives must think the 
officer guilty before he can be charged. Two thirds of 
the Senate must pronounce him guilty, or he is deemed 
to be innocent. Forty-six Senators appear by the jour- 
nal to have been present when the vote on the resolution 
was taken. If, after all the solemnities of an impeach- 
ment, thirty of those Senators had voted that the Presi- 
dent was guilty, yet would he have been acquitted ; but 
by the mode of proceeding adopted in the present case, 
a lasting record of conviction has been entered up by 
the votes of twenty-six Senators, without an impeach- 
ment or trial ; whilst the constitution expressly declares, 
that to the entry of such a judgment on accusation l»y 
the House of Representatives, a trial by the Senate, and 
a concurrence of two thirds in the vote of guilty, shall 
be indispensable pre-requisites. 

Whether or not an impeachment was to be expected 
from the House of Representatives, was a point on which 
the Senate had no constitutional right to speculate, and 
in respect to which, even had it possessed the spirit of 
prophecy, its anticipations would have furnished no just 
'grounds for this procedure. Admitting that there was 
reason to believe that a violation of the constitution and 
laws had been actually committed by the President, still 
it was the duty of the Senate, as his sole constitutional 
judges, to wait for an impeachment until the other House 
should think proper to prefer it. The members of the 
Senate could have no right to infer that no impeachment 
was intended. On the contrary, every legal and rational 
presumption on their part ought to have been, that if 
there was good reason to believe him guilty of an im- 
peachable offence, the House of Representatives would 
perform its constitutional duty, by arraigning the offend- 
er before the justice of his country. The contrary pre- 
sumption would involve an implication derogatory to the 
integrity and honor of the representatives of the people. 
But suppose the suspicion thus implied were actually en- 
tertained, and for good cause, how can it justify the as- 
sumption by the Senate of powers not conferred by the 
constitution? 



PROTEST. "203 

It is only necessary to look at the condition in which 
the Senate and President have been placed by this proce- 
dure, to perceive its utter incompatibility with the pro- 
visions and spirit of the constitution, and with the 
plainest dictates of humanity and justice. 

If the House of Representatives shall be of opinion 
that there is just ground for the censure pronounced upon 
the President, then it will be the solemn duty of the house 
to prefer the proper accusation, and to cause him to be 
brought to trial by the constitutional tribunal. But in 
what condition would he find that tribunal ? A majority 
of its members have already considered the case, and 
have not only formed, but expressed a deliberate judg- 
ment upon its merits. It is the policy of our benign sys- 
tems of jurisprudence, to secure in all criminal proceed- 
ings, and even in the most trivial litigations, a fair, un- 
prejudiced, and impartial trial. And surely it cannot be 
less important that such a trial should be secured to the 
highest officer of the government. 

The constitution makes the House of Representatives 
the exclusive judges, in the first instance, of the question, 
whether the President has committed an impeachable of- 
fence. A majority of the Senate, whose interference 
with this preliminary question has, for the best of all rea- 
sons, been studiously excluded, anticipate the action of 
the House of Representatives, assume not only the func- 
tion which belongs exclusively to that body, but convert 
themselves into accusers, witnesses, counsel, and judges, 
and prejudge the whole case. Thus presenting the ap- 
palling spectacle in a free state, of judges going througii 
a labored preparation for an impartial hearing and deci- 
sion, by a previous ex parte investigation M^.sentenco 
against the supposed offender. ^^i^ 

There is no settled axiom in that government whence 
v/e derive the model of this our constitution, than " that 
the lords cannot impeach any to themselves, nor join in 
the accusation, because thaj are judges." Independent- 
ly of the general reasons on which this rule is founded, 
its propriety and importance are greatly increased by the 
nature of the impeaching power. The power of arraign- 
ing the high officers of government, before a tribunal 



204 THE TUUE AMERICAN. 

whose sentence may expel them from their seats, and 
brand them as infamous, is emmently a popular remedy — 
a remedy designed to be employed for the protection of 
private right and public liberty, against the abuses of in- 
justice and the encroachment of arbitrary power. But 
the framers of the constitution were also undoubtedly 
aware, that this formidable instrument has been and might 
be abused ; and that from its very nature, an impeach- 
ment for high crimes and misdemeanors, whatever might 
be its result, would in most cases be accompanied by so 
much of dishonor and reproach, solicitude and suffering, 
as to make the power of preferring it, one of the highest 
solemnity and importance. It was due to both these con- 
siderations that the impeaching power should be lodged 
in the hands of those who, from the mode of their elec- 
tion and the tenor of their offices, would most accurately 
express the popular will, and at the same tim.e be most 
directly and speedily amenable to the people. The theo- 
ry of these wise and benignant intentions is, in the pre- 
sent case, effectually defeated by the proceedings of the 
Senate. The members of that body represent not the 
people, but the states ; and though they are undoubtedly 
responsible to the states, yet, from their extended term 
of service, the effect of that responsibility, during the 
whole period of that term, must very much depend upon 
their own impressions of its obligatory force. When a 
body, thus constituted, expresses beforehand its opinion 
in a particular case, and thus indirectly invites a prosecu- 
tion, it not only assumes a power intended for wise rea- 
sons to be confined to others, but it shields the latter 
from that exclusive and personal responsibility under 
which it was intended to be exercised, and reverses the 
whole scheme of this part of the constitution. 

Such would be some of the objections to this proce- 
dure, even if it were admitted that there is a just ground 
for imputing to the President, the offences charged in 
the resolution. But if, on the other hand, the House of 
Representatives shall be of opinion that there is no rea- 
son for charging them upon him, and shall therefore 
deem it improper to prefer an impeachment, then will 
the violations of that privilege as it respects that house, 



PROTEST, 205 

of justice as it regards the President, and of the consti- 
tution as it relates to both, be only the more conspicuous 
and impressive. 

The constitutional mode of procedure on an impeach- 
ment, has not only been wholly disregarded, but some of 
the first principles of natural right and enlightened juris- 
prudence have been violated in the very form of the re- 
solution. It carefully abstains from averring in toJiich of 
" the late proceedings in relation to the public revenue, 
the President has assumed upon himself authority and 
power not conferred by the constitution and laws." It 
carefully abstains from specifying what laws or what 
parts of the constitution have been violated. Why 
was not the certainty of the offence — " the nature and 
cause of the accusation" — set out in the manner required 
in the constitution, before the humblest individual, for the 
smallest crime, can be exposed to condemnation ? Such 
a specification was due to the accused, that he might di- 
rect his defence to the real point of attack ; to the peo- 
ple, that they might clearly understand in what particu- 
lars their institutions had been violated ; and to the truth 
and certainty of our public annals. As the record now 
stands, whilst the resolution plainly charges upon the 
President at least one act of usurpation in the " late ex- 
ecutive proceedings in relation to the public revenue," 
and is so framed that those Senators who believed that 
one such act, and only one, had been committed, could 
assent to it ; its language is yet broad enough to include 
several such acts ; and so it may have been regarded by 
some of them who voted for it. But though the accusa- 
tion is thus comprehensive in the censures which it im- 
plies, there is no such certainty of time, place, or cir- 
cumstance, as to exhibit the particular conclusion of fact 
or law which induced any one Senator to vole for it. 
And it may well have happened, that whilst one Senator 
believed that some particular act embraced in the resolu- 
tion, was an arbitrary and unconstitutional assumption 
of power, others of the majority may have deemed that 
very act both constitutional and expedient, or if not ex- 
pedient, yet still within the pale of the constitution. And 
thus a majority of the Senators may have been enabled 
18 



206 THK TRUE AiMKUICAA. 

to concur in a vague and undefined resolution that the 
President, in the course of the " late executive proceed- 
ings in relation to the public revenue," had violated the 
constitution and laws, whilst, if a separate vote had been 
taken in respect to each particular act, included within 
the general terms, the accusers of the President might, 
on any such vote, have been found in the minority. 

Still further to exemplify this feature of the proceed- 
ing, it is important to be remarked, that the resolution, 
as originally offered to the Senate, specified with ade- 
quate precision certain acts of the President, which it 
denounced as a violation of the constitution and laws ; 
and that it was not until the very close of the debate, 
and when perhaps it was apprehended that a majority 
might not sustain the specific accusation contained in it, 
that the resolution was so modified as to assume its pre- 
sent form. A more striking illustration of the soundness 
and necessity of the rules which forbid vague and inde- 
finite generalities, and require a reasonable certainty in 
all judicial allegations ; and a more glaring instance of 
the violation of those rules, has seldom been exhibited. 

In this view of the resolution, it must certainly be re- 
garded not as a vindication of any particular provision of 
the law or the constitution, but simply as an official re- 
buke or condemnatory sentence, too general and indefinite 
to be easily repelled, but yet sufficiently precise to bring' 
into discredit the conduct and motives of the executive. 

But whatever it may have been intended to accomplish, 
it is obvious, that the vague, general, and abstract form 
of the resolution is in perfect keeping with those other 
departures from first principles and settled improvements 
in jurisprudence, so properly the boast of free countries 
in modern times. And it is not too much to say of the 
whole of these proceedings, that if they shall be approved 
and sustained by an intelligent people, then will that 
great contest with arbitrary power, which had established 
institutes, in bills of rights, in sacred charters, and in 
constitutions of government, the right of every citizen, 
to a notice before trial, to a hearing before conviction, 
and to an impartial tribunal for deciding on the charge, 
hue been waited in vain. 



PROTEST- 207 

If the resolution had been left in its original form, it is 
not to be presumed that it could ever have received the 
assent of a majority of the Senate, for the acts therein 
specified as violations of the constitution and laws, were 
clearly within the limits of the executive authority. They 
are the " dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury, 
because he would not, contrary to his sense of his own 
duty, remove the money of the United States in deposit 
with the Bank of the United States and its branches in 
conformity with the President's opinion ; and appointing 
his successor to effect such a removal, which has been 
done." But as no other specification has been substitu- 
ted, and as these were the "executive proceedings in re- 
lation to the public revenue," principally referred to in 
the course of the discussion, they will doubtless be ge- 
nerally regarded as the acts intended to be denounced as 
" an assumption of authority and power, not conferred 
by the constitution or laws, but in derogation of both." 
It is therefore due to the occasion that a condensed sum- 
mary of the views of the executive in respect to them, 
should be here exhibited. 

By the constitution the " executive power is vested in 
the President of the United States." Among the duties 
imposed upon him, and which he is sworn to perform, is 
that of " taking care that the laws be faithfully executed." 
Being thus made responsible for the entire action of the 
executive department, it was but reasonable that the power 
of appointing, overseeing, and controlling those who ex- 
ecute the laws — a power in its nature executive — should 
remain in his hands. It is therefore not only his right, 
but the constitution makes it his duty, to " nominate, 
and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
appoint" all " officers of the United States, whose ap- 
pointments are not in the constitution otherwise provided 
for," with the proviso that the appointment of inferior 
officers may be vested in the President alone, in the courts 
of justice, or in the heads of depaitments. 

The executive power vested in the Senate is neither 
that of " nominating," nor " appointing." It is merely 
a check upon the executive power of appointment. If 
individuals are proposed for appointment by the Presi- 



208 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

dent, by tliem deemed incompetent or unwortliy, they 
may withhold their consent, and the appointment cannot 
be made. They check the action of the executive, but 
cannot in relation to these very subjects act themselves 
nor direct him. Selections are still made by the Presi- 
dent, and the negative given to the Senate, without di- 
minishing his responsibility, furnishes an additional gua- 
rantee to the country that the subordinate executive, as 
well as the judicial offices, shall be filled with worthy and 
competent men. 

The whole executive power being vested in the Presi- 
dent who is responsible for its exercise, it is a necessary 
consequence that he should have aright to employ agents 
of his own choice to aid him in the performance of his 
duties, and to discharge them when he is no longer will- 
ing to be responsible for their acts. In strict accordance 
with this principle, the power of removal, which, like that 
of appointment, is an original executive power, is left 
unchecked by the constitution in relation to all executive 
officers, for whose conduct the President is responsible, 
while it is taken from him in relation to judicial officers, 
for whose acts he is not responsible. In the government 
from which many of the fundamental principles of our 
system are derived, the head of the executive department 
originally had power to appoint and remove at will all 
officers, executive and judicial. It was to take the judges 
out of this general power of removal, and thus make them 
independent of the executive, that the tenure of their 
offices was changed to good behavior. Nor is it conceiva- 
ble why they are placed in our constitution upon a tenure 
different from that of all other officers appointed by the 
executive, unless it be for the same purpose. 

But if there were any just ground for doubt on the 
face of the constitution, whether all executive officers are 
removable at the will of the President, it is obviated by 
contemporaneous construction of the instrument and the 
uniform practice under it. 

The power of removal was a topic of solemn debate in 
the Congress of 1789, while organizing the administra- 
tive departments of the government, and it was finally 
decided, that the President derived from the constitution 



PROTEST. 209 

the power of removal, so far as it regards the department 
for whose acts he is responsible. Although the debate 
covered the whole ground, embracing the treasury as well 
as all other executive departments, it arose on a motion 
to strike out of the bill to establish a department of for- 
eign affairs, since called the department of state, a clause 
declaring the secretary " to be removable from office by 
the President of the United States." After that motion 
had been decided in the negative, it was perceived that 
these words did not convey the sense of the House of 
Representatives in relation to the true source of the pow- 
er of removal. With the avowed object of preventing 
any future inference, that this power was exercised by 
the President in virtue of a grant from Congress, when 
in fact that body considered it as derived from the consti- 
tution, the words which had been the subject of debate 
were struck out, and in lieu thereof a clause was inserted 
m a provision concerning the chief clerk of the depart- 
ment, which declared that " whenever the said principal 
officer shall be removed from office by the President of the 
United States, or in any other case of vacancy," the chief 
clerk should during such vacancy have charge of the 
papers of the office. This change having been made for 
the express purpose of declaring the sense of Congress 
that the President derived the power of removal from the 
constitution, the act as it passed has always been consid- 
ered as a full expression of the sense of the legislature 
on this important part of the American constitution. 

Here then we have the concurrent authority of Presi- 
dent Washington, of the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives, numbers of whom had taken an active part in the 
convention which framed the constitution, and in the 
state convention which adopted it, that the President 
derived an unqualified power of removal from that in- 
strument itself, which is " beyond the reach of legislative 
authority." Upon this principle the government has now 
been steadily administered for about forty-five years, du- 
ring which there have been numerous removals made by 
the President or by his direction, embracing every grade 
of executive officers, from the heads of departments to 
the messengers of bureaus. 
18* 



210 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

Tne treasury department, in the discussion of 1789, 
was considered on the same footing as the other execu- 
tive departments, and in the act establishing it, the pre- 
cise words incorporated indicative of the sense of Con- 
gress, that the President derives his power to remove the 
secretary from the constitution, which appear in the act 
establishing the department of foreign affairs. An assist- 
ant secretary of the treasury was created, and it was 
provided that he should take charge of the books and 
papers of the department, " whenever the secretary shall 
be removed from office by the President of the United 
States." The secretary of the treasury being appointed 
by the President, and being considered as constitutionally 
removable by him, it appears never to have occurred to 
any one in the Congress of 1789, or since, until very 
recently, that he was other than an executive officer, the 
mere instrument of the chief magistrate in the execution 
of the laws, subject, like all other heads of departments, 
to his supervision and control. No such idea as an offi- 
cer of the Congress can be found in the constitution, or 
appears to have suggested itself to those who organized 
the government. There are officers of each house, the 
appointment of which is authorized by the constitution, 
but all officers referred to in that instrument, as coming 
within the appointing power of the President, whether 
established thereby or created by law, are " officers of 
the United States." No joint power of appointment is 
given to the two houses of Congress, nor is there any 
accountability to them as one body ; but as soon as any 
office is created by law, of whatever name or character, 
the appointment of the person or persons to fill it, de- 
volves by the constitution upon the President, with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, unless it be an inferior 
office, and the appointment be vested by the law itself 
" in the President alone, in the courts of law, or the heads 
of the departments." 

But at the time of the organization of the treasury 
department, an incident occurred which distinctly evinces 
the unanimous concurrence of the first Congress in the 
principle that the treasury department is wholly ex- 
ecutive in its character and responsibilities. A motion 



rnoTH.'^T. 211 

was made to strike out tlic provision of tlie bill making 
it the duty of the secretary " to digest and report for the 
improvement and management of the revenue, and for 
the support of public credit," on the ground that it would 
give the executive department of the government too 
much influence and power in Congress. The motion was 
not opposed on the ground that the secretary was the 
officer of Congress, and responsible to that body, which 
would have been conclusive, if admitted, but on other 
grounds which conceded his executive character through- 
out. The whole discussion evinces a unanimous concur- 
rence in the principle that the secretary of the treasury 
is wholly an executive officer, and the struggle of the 
minority was to restrict his power as such. From that 
time down to the present, the secretary of the treasury, 
the treasurer, register, comptrollers, auditors, and clerks, 
who fill the offices of that department, have in the prac- 
tice of the government, been considered and treated as 
on the same footing with the corresponding grades of of- 
ficers in all the other executive departments. 

The custody of the public property, under such regu- 
lations as may be prescribed by legislative authority, has 
always been considered an appropriate function of the 
executive department in this and all other governments. 
In accordance with this principle, every species of pro- 
perty belonging to the United States (excepting that which 
is in the use of the several co-ordinate departments of 
the government, as means to aid them in performing their 
appropriate functions) is in charge of officers appointed 
by the President, whether it be lands, or buildings, or 
merchandise, or provisions, or clothing, or arms and mu- 
nitions of war. The superintendents and keepers of the 
whole are appointed by the President, responsible to him, 
and removable at his will. 

Public money is but a species of public property. It 
cannot be raised by taxations or customs, nor brought 
into the treasury in any other way except by law ; but 
whenever or howsoever obtained, its custody always has 
been, and always must be, unless the constitution be 
changed, intrusted to the executive department. No of- 
ficer can be created by Congress for the purpose of taking 



212 THE TRl'F. AMKUU'AX. 

charge of it, whose appointment would not, by tlio con- 
stitution, at once devolve on the President, and who 
would not be responsible to him for the faithful perform- 
ance of his duties. The legislative pov^er may undoubt- 
edly bind him and the President, by any laws they may 
think proper to enact ; they may prescribe in what place 
particular portions of the public money shall be kept, and 
for what reasons it shall be removed, as they may direct 
that supplies for the army or navy shall be kept in parti- 
cular stores ; and it will be the duty of the President 
to see that the law is faithfully executed — yet will the 
custody remain in the executive department of the go- 
vernment. Were the Congress to assume, with or with- 
out a legislative act, the power of appointing officers inde- 
pendently of the President, to take the charge and custo- 
dy of the public property contained in the military and 
naval arsenals, magazines, and storehouses, it is believed 
that such an act would be regarded by all as a palpable 
usurpation of executive power, subversive of the form as 
well as the fundamental principles of our government. 
But where is the difference in principle, whether the 
public property be in the form of arms, munitions of war, 
and supplies, or in gold and silver, or bank notes? None 
can be perceived — none is believed to exist. Congress 
cannot, therefore, take out of the hands of the executive 
department, the custody of the public property or money, 
without an assumption of executive power, and subver- 
sion of the first principles of the constitution. 

The Congress of the United States have never passed 
an act imperatively directing that the public money shall 
be kept in any particular place or places. From the ori- 
gin of the government to the year 1810, the statute book 
was wholly silent on the subject. In 1789, a treasurer 
was created, subordinate to the secretary of the treasu- 
ry, and through him to the President. He was required 
to give bond, safely to keep, and faithfully to disburse 
the public moneys, without any direction as to the man- 
ner or places in which they should be kept. By refer- 
ence to the practice of the government, it is found that 
from its first organization, the secretary of the treasury, 
acting under the supervision of the Presidenl, designnted 



PROTEST. 213 

tlie places in wliich the public moneys should be kept, 
and specially directed all transfers from place to place. 
This practice was continued, with the silent acquiescence 
of Congress, from 1789 down to 1816; and although 
many banks were selected and discharged, and although 
a portion of the moneys were first placed in the state 
hanks, and then in the former banks of the United States, 
and upon the dissolution of that, were again transferred 
to the state banks, no legislation was thought necessary 
by Congress, and all the operations were originated and 
perfected by executive authority. The secretary of the 
treasury, responsible to the President, and with his ap- 
probation, made contracts and arrangements in relation 
to the whole subject, which was thus entirely committed 
to the direction of the President, under his responsibili 
ties to the American people, and to those who were au- 
thorized to impeach and punish him for any breach of 
this important trust. 

The act of 1816, establishing the Bank of the United 
States, directed the deposits of public money to be made 
iu that bank and its branches, in places in which the said 
bank and branches thereof may be established, " unless 
the secretary of the treasury should otherwise order and 
direct," in which event he was required to give his rea- 
sons to Congress. This was but a continuation of his 
pre-existing powers as the head of the executive depart- 
ment, to direct where the deposits should be made, with 
the superadded obligation of giving his reasons to Con- 
gress for making them elsewhere than in the Bank of the 
United States and its branches. It is not to be consi- 
dered that this provision in any degree altered the relation 
between the secretary of the treasury and the President, 
as the responsible head of the executive department, or 
released the latter from his constitutional obligation to 
'-' take care that the laws be faithfully executed." On 
the contrary, it increased his responsibilities, by adding 
another to the long list of laws which it was his duty to 
carry into effect. 

It would be an extraordinary result, if, because the 
person charged by the law with a public duty, is one of 
the secretaries, it were less the duty of the President to 



214 THE TRIF, AMERICAN. 

see that law faithfully executed, than other laws enjoin- 
ing duties upon subordinate officers or private citizens. 
If there be any difference, it would seem that the obliga- 
tion is the stronger in relation to the former, because the 
neglect is in his presence, and the remedy at hand. 

It cannot be doubted that it was the legal duty of the 
secretary of the treasury, to order and direct the depo- 
sits of the public money to be made elsewhere than in 
the Bank of the United States, whenever sufficient rea- 
sons existed for meiMng the change. If, in such case, he 
neglected or refused to act, he would neglect or refuse to 
execute the law. What would then be the sworn duty of 
the President? Could he say that the constitution did 
not bind him to see the law faithfully executed, because 
it was one of his secretaries, and not himself upon whom 
the service was specially imposed ? Might he not be asked 
whether there was any such limitation to his obligations 
prescribed in the constitution 1 whether he was not 
equally bound to take care tliat the laws be faithfully exe- 
cuted, whether they impose duties on the highest officer 
of state, or the lowest subordinate in any of the depart- 
ments? Might he not be told, that it was for the sole 
purpose of causing all executive officers, from the highest 
to the lowest, faithfully to perform the services required 
of them by law, that the people of the United States 
have made him their chief magistrate, and the constitu- 
tion has clothed him with the entire executive power of 
this government ? The principles implied in these ques- 
tions appear too plain to need elucidation. 

But here, also, we have a cotemporancous construction 
of the act, which shows that it was not understood as in 
any way changing the relations between the President 
and secretary of the treasury, or as placing the latter out 
of executive control, even in relation to the deposits of 
the public money. Nor on this point are we left to any 
equivocal testimony. The documents of the treasury de- 
partment show that the secretary of the treasury did apply 
to the President, and obtain his approbation and sanction 
to the original transfer of the public deposits to the pre- 
sent Bank of the United States, and did carry the mea- 
sure into effect in obedience to hi? decision. Thev also 



ruuTi:;?'!". 215 

show that the trunsi'tu;? ot" the public deposits trom the 
branches of the Bank of the United States to the state 
banks, at Chilicothe, Cincinnati, and Louisville, in 1819, 
were made with the approbation of the President, and by 
his authority. They show that upon all important ques- 
tions appertaining to his department, whether they related 
to the public deposits or other matters, it was the con- 
stant practice of the secretary of the treasury to obtain 
for his acts the approval and sanction of the President. 
These acts, and the principles on which they were found- 
ed, were known to all the departments of the government, 
to Congress, and the country ; and until very recently, 
appear never to have been called in question. 

Thus it was settled by the constitution, the laws, and 
the whole practice of the government, that the entire 
executive power is vested in the President of the United 
States ; that as incident to that power, the right of appoint- 
ing and removing those officers who are to aid him in the 
execution of the laws, with such restrictions only as the 
constitution prescribes, is vested in the President ; that 
the secretary of the treasury is one of those officers ; that 
the custody of the public property and money is an ex- 
ecutive function, which, in relation to the money, has 
always been exercised through the secretary of the trea- 
sury and his subordinates ; that in the performance of 
these duties, he is subject to the supervision and control 
of the President, and in all important measures having 
relation to them, consults the chief magistrate, and obtains 
his approval and sanction ; that the law establishing the 
bank did not, as it could not, change the relation between 
the President and secretary — did not release the former 
from his obligation to see the law faithfully executed, nor 
the latter from the President's supervision and control ; 
that afterwards, and before, the secretary did in fact con- 
sult, and obtain the sanction of the President, to transfers 
and removals of the public deposits ; and that all depart- 
ments of the government, and the nation itself, approved 
or acquiesced in these acts and principles, as in strict 
conformity with our constitution and laws. 

During the last year, the approaching termination, ac- 
cording to the provisions of its charter and the solemn 



216 THE TUUE ABIEKICAN. 

decision of the American people, of the Bank of I lie 
United States, made it expedient, and its exposed abuses 
and corruptions made it, in my opinion, the duty of the 
secretary of the treasury to place the moneys of the Uni- 
ted States in other depositories. The secretary did not 
concur in that opinion, and declined giving the necessary 
order and direction. So glaring were the abuses and 
corruption of the bank, so evident its fixed purpose to 
persevere in them, and so palpable its design, by its 
money and power, to control the government and change 
its character, that I deemed it the imperative duty of the 
executive authority, by the exertion of every power con- 
fided to it by the constitution and laws, to check its ca- 
reer, and lessen its ability to do mischief, even in the 
painful alternative of dismissing the head of one of the 
departments. At the time the removal was made, other 
causes sufficient to justify it existed ; but if they had not, 
the secretary would have been dismissed for this cause 
only. 

His place I supplied by one whose opinions were well 
known to me, and whose frank expression of them, in 
another situation, and whose generous sacrifices of inte- 
rest and feeling, when unexpectedly called to the station 
he now occupies, ought forever to have shielded his mo- 
tives from suspicion, and his character from reproach. 
In accordance with the opinions long before expressed 
by him, he proceeded, with my sanction, to make arrange- 
ments for depositing the moneys of the United States in 
other safe institutions. 

The resolution of the senate, as originally framed and 
as passed, if it refers to these acts, presupposes a right in 
that body to interfere with this exercise of executive pow- 
er. If the principle be once admitted, it is not difficult 
to perceive where it may end. If, by a mere denuncia- 
tion like this resolution, the President should ever be in- 
duced to act, in a matter of official duty, contrary to ihe 
honest convictions of his own mind, in compliance with 
the wishes of the Senate, the constitutional independence 
of the executive department would be as effisctually de- 
stroyed, and its power as effectually transferred to the 
Senate, as if that end had been accomplished by an amend- 



PROTEST. 217 

laenl of the constitution. But if the Semite have a right 
to interfere with the executive powers, they have also the 
right to make that interference effective; and if the as- 
sertion of the power implied iu the resolution be silently 
acquiesced in, we may reasonably apprehend that it will 
he followed, at some future day, by an attempt at actual 
enforcement. The Senate may refuse, except on the 
condition that he will surrender his opinions to theirs and 
obey their will, to perform their own constitutional func- 
tions ; to pass the necessary laws ; to sanction appropria- 
tions proposed by the House of Representatives, and to 
coniirm proper nominations made by the President. It 
has already been maintained (and it is not conceivable 
that the resolution of the Senate can be based on any 
other principle,) that the secretary of the treasury is the 
officer of Congress, and independent of the President ; 
that the President has no right to control him, and conse- 
quently none to remove him. With the same propriety, 
and on similar grounds, may the secretary of state, the 
secretaries of war and the navy, and the postmaster gen- 
eral, each in succession, be declared independent of the 
President, and subordinates of Congress, and removable 
only with the concurrence of the Senate. Followed to 
its consequences, the principle will be found effectually 
to destroy one co-ordinate department of the government, 
to concentrate in the hands of the Senate the whole 
executive power, and to leave the President as powerless as 
he would be useless, the shadow of authority, after the 
substance had departed. 

The time and the occasion which have called forth the 
resolution of the Senate, .seem to impose upon me an 
additional obligation not to pass it over in silence. Near- 
ly forty-five years had the President exercised, without a 
question as to his rightful authority, those powers for the 
recent resumption of which he is now denounced. The 
vicissitudes of peace and war had attended our govern- 
ment, violent parties, watchful to take advantage of any 
seeming usurpation on the part of the executive, had dis- 
tracted our counsels ; frequent removals, or forced resig- 
nations in every sense tantamount to removals had been 
made of the secretary and other officers of the treasury ; 
and vet, in no one instance, is it known that any man, 
19 



Q18 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

whether palriot or partisan, had raised his voice against 
it as a violation of the constitution. The expediency and 
justice of such changes, in reference to public officers of 
all grades, have frequently been the topics of discussion ; 
but the constitutional right of the President to appoint, 
control, and remove the head of the treasury, as well 
as all other departments, seems to have been univer- 
sally conceded. And what is the occasion upon which 
other principles have been first officially asserted? The 
Bank of the United States, a great moneyed monopoly, 
had attempted to obtain a renewal of its charter, by 
controlling the elections of the people, and the action 
of the government. The use of its corporate funds and 
power in that attempt, was fully disclosed ; and it was 
made known to the President that the corporation was pu- 
ting in train the same course of measures, with the view 
of making another vigorous effort, through an interference 
in the elections of the people, to control public opinion 
and force the government to yield its demands. This, 
with its corruption of the press, its violation of its char- 
ter, its exclusion of the government directors from its pro-', 
ceedings, its neglect of duty, and arrogant pretensions, 7 
made it, in the opinion of the President, incompatible 
with the public interest and the safety of our institutions, 
that it should be longer employed as the fiscal agent of 
the treasury. A secretary of the treasury, appointed in 
the recess of the Senate, who had not been confirmed by 
that body and whom the President might or might not 
at his pleasure nominate to them, refused to do what his 
superior in the executive department considered the most 
imperative of his duties, and because in fact, however in- 
nocent his motives, the protector of the bank. And on 
this occasion it is discovered for the first time, that those 
who framed the constitution misunderstood it ; that the 
first Congress and all its successors have been under a 
delusion ; that the practice of nearly forty-five years, is 
but a continued usurpation ; that the secretary of the 
treasury is not responsible to the President ; and that to 
remove him is a violation of the constitution and laws, 
for which the President deserves to stand forever dishon- 
ored on the journals of the Senate. 

There arc abo tome other circumstances connected 



PROTEST. 219 

with the discussion and passage of the resolution, to 
which I feel it to be not only my right but my duty to 
refer. It appears by the journal of the Senate, that 
among the twenty-six Senators who voted for the resolu- 
tion on its final passage, and who had supported it in de- 
bate in its original form, were, one of the Senators from 
the state of Maine, the two Senators from New Jersey, 
and one of the Senators from Ohio. It also appears by 
the same journal, and by the files of the Senate, that the 
legislatures of those states had severally expressed their 
opinions in respect to the executive proceedings drawn in 
question before the Senate. 

The two branches of the legislature of the state of 
Maine, on the 25th January, 1834, passed a preamble 
and series of resolutions in the following words : 

" Whereas, at an early period after the election of An- 
drew Jackson to the presidency, in accordance with the 
sentiments which he had uniformly expressed, the at- 
tention of Congress was called to the constitutionality 
and expediency of the renewal of the charter of the 
United States Bank ; and whereas the bank has transcend- 
ed its chartered limits in the management of its busi- 
ness transactions, and has abandoned the object of its cre- 
ation, by engaging in political controversies, by wield- 
ing its power and influence to embarrass the administra- 
tion of the general government, and by bringing insol- 
vency and distress upon the commercial community ; and 
whereas, the public security from such an institution con- 
sists less in its present pecuniary capacity to discharge its 
liabilities than in the fidelity with which the trusts reposed 
in it have been executed ; and whereas, the abuse and 
misapplication of the powers conferred have destroyed 
the confidence of the public in the officers of the bank, 
and demonstrated that such powers endangered the sta- 
bility of republican institutions : therefore, 

" Resolved, That in the removal of the public depo- 
sits from the Bank of the United States, as well as in the 
manner of their removal, we recognize in the administra- 
tion an adherence to constitutional rights, and the per- 
formance of a public duty. 

" Resolved, That this legislature entertain the same 



220 THE TRUE AMERICA N. 

opinion as heretofore expressed by preceding legislatures 
of this state, that the Bank of the United States ought 
not to be rechartered. 

" Resolved, That the Senators of this state in the 
Congress of the United States be instructed, and the 
Representatives be requested to oppose the restoration of 
the deposites and the renewal of the charter of the Uni- 
ted States Bank." 

On the 11th of January, 1834, the House of Assembly 
and Council composing the legislature of the state of 
New Jersey, passed a preamble and a series of resolutions, 
in the following words : 

" Whereas the present crisis in our public affairs calls 
for a decided expression of the voice of the people of this 
state ; and whereas we consider it the undoubted right of 
the legislatures of the several states to instruct those who 
represent their interests in the councils of the nation, in 
all matters which intimately concern the public weal, and 
may affect the happiness or well-being of the people ; 
therefore, 

" Be it resolved hy the Council and General Asse77ihly 
of tins state, That while we acknowledge with feelings 
of devout gratitude our obligations to the great Ruler of 
nations for his mercies to us as a people, that we have 
been preserved alike from foreign war, from the evils of 
internal commotions, and the machinations of designing 
and ambitious men, who would prostrate the fair fabric 
of our Union ; that we ought, nevertheless, to humble 
ourselves in his presence, and implore his aid for the per- 
petuation of our republican institutions, and for a conti- 
nuance of that unexampled prosperity which our country 
has hitherto enjoyed. 

2d, " Resolved, That we have undiminished confidence 
in the integrity and firmness of the venerable patriot, who 
now holds the distinguished post of chief magistrate of 
this nation, and whose purity of purpose and elevated 
motives have so often received the unqualified approba» 
tion of a large majority of his fellow-citizens. 

3d, " Resolved, That we view with agitation and alarm 
the existence of a great moneyed incorporation, which 
threatens to embarrass the operations of the government, 



PROTEST. 221 

and by means of its unbounded influence upon the cur- 
rency of the country, to scatter distress and ruin through- 
out the community ; and that we therefore solemnly believe 
the present Bank of the United States ought not to be 
rechartered. 

4th, " Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be in- 
structed, and our members of the House of Representa- 
tives be requested to sustain, by their votes and influ- 
ence, the course adopted by the secretary of the treasu- 
ry, Mr. Taney, in relation to the Bank of the United 
States and the deposits of the government moneys, be- 
lieving as we do the course of the secretary to have been 
constitutional, and that the public good required its adop- 
tion." 

On the 21st of February last, the legislature of the 
same state reiterated the opinions and instructions before 
given, by joint resolutions, in the following words : 

" Resolved hy the Council and General Assembly of 
the state of New Jersey, That they do adhere to the re- 
solutions passed by them on the 11th day of January last, 
relative to the President of the United States, the Bank 
of the United States, and the course of Mr. Taney in 
removing the government deposits. 

" Resolved, That the legislature of New Jersey have 
not seen any reason to depart from such resolutions since 
the passage thereof; and it is their wish that they should 
receive from our Senators and Representatives of this 
state in the Congress of the United States, that attention 
and obedience which are due to the opinion of a sove- 
reign state, openly expressed in its legislative capacity." 

On the 2d of January, 1834, the Senate and House of 
Representatives composing the legislature of Ohio, passed 
a preamble and resolutions in the following words ; 

" Whereas, there is reason to believe that the Bank of 
the United Siates will attempt to obtain a renewal of its 
charter at the present session of Congress. And where- 
as, it is abundantly evident that said bank has exercised 
powers derogatory to the spirit of our free institutions 
and dangerous to the liberties of these United States. 
And whereas, there is just reason to doubt the constitu- 
tional power of Congress to grant acts of incorporation 
19* 



222 THE TPaTE AMTUICAN. 

for banking purposes out of the District of Columbia. 
And whereas, we believe the proper disposal of the pub- 
lic lands to be of the utmost importance to the people of 
these United States, and that honor and good faith re- 
quire their equitable distribution : Therefore, 

" Resolved by the General Assembly of the state of 
Ohio, That we consider the removal of the public depo- 
sits from the Bank of the United States as required by 
the best interests of our country, and that a proper sense 
of public duty imperiously demanded that that institution 
should be no longer used as a depository of the public 
funds. 

" Resolved, also. That we view, with decided disap- 
probation, the renewed attempts in Congress to secure 
the passage of the bill providing for the disposal of the 
public domain upon the principle proposed by Mr. Clay, 
inasmuch as we believe that such a law would be unequal 
in its operations, and unjust in its results. 

" Resolved, also. That we heartily approve of the 
principles set forth in the late veto message upon this 
subject, and 

" Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instruct- 
ed, and our Representatives requested, to use their influ- 
ence to prevent the rechartering of the Bank of the Uni- 
ted States ; to sustain the administration in its removal 
of the public deposits; and to oppose the passage of a 
land bill containing the principles adopted in the act 
upon that subject passed at the last session of Congress. 

" Resolved, That the governor be requested to trans- 
mit copies of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to 
each of our Senators and Representatives." 

It is thus seen that four Senators have declared by 
their votes that the President, in the executive proceed- 
ings in relation to the revenue, had been guilty of the im- 
peachable offence of " assuming upon himself authority 
and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, 
but in derogation of both," w'hilst the legislatures of their 
respective states had deliberately approved those very 
proceedings, as consistent with the constitution and de- 
manded by the public good. If these four votes had been 
given in acconlanre with the ?ontiments of the lea;isla- 



PUOTF.ST. 223 

tures, as above expressed, there would have been but 
twenty-four out of forty-six for censuring the President, 
and the unprecedented record of his conviction could 
not have been placed upon the journals of the Senate. 

In thus referring to the resolutions and instructions of 
the state legislatures, I disclaim and repudiate all autho- 
rity or design to interfere with the responsibility due from 
members of the Senate to their own consciences, their 
constituents, and their country. The facts now stated, 
belong to the history of these proceedings, and are im- 
portant to the just development of the principles and in- 
terests involved in them, as well as to the proper vindica- 
tion of the executive department; and with that view, 
and that only, are they here made the topic of remark. 

The dangerous tendency of the doctrine which denies 
to the President the power of supervising, directing, and 
removing the secretary of the treasury in like manner 
with other executive officers, would soon be manifest in 
practice, were the doctrine to be established. The Pre- 
sident is the direct representative of the American peo- 
ple, but the secretaries are not. If the secretary of the 
treasury be independent of the President in the execu- 
tion of the laws, then is there no direct responsibility to 
the people in the important branch of this government, 
to which is committed the care of the national finances. 
And it is in the power of the Bank of the United States, 
or any other corporation, body of men, or individuals, if 
a secretary shall be found to accord with them in opinion, 
or can be induced in practice to promote their views, to 
control through him the whole action of government (so 
far as it is exercised by his department,) in defiance of 
the chief magistrate elected by the people and responsi- 
ble to them. 

But the evil tendency of the particular doctrine advert- 
ed to, though superficially serious, would be as nothing 
in comparison with the pernicious consequences which 
would inevitably flow from the high approbation and al- 
lowance by the people, and the practice by the Senate, of 
the unconstitutional power of arraigning and censuring 
the official conduct of the executive, in the manner re- 
cently pursued. Such procpodinsrs aro eminently caleu- 



224 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

lated to unsettle the foundations of the government ; to 
disturb the harmonious action of the different depart- 
ments; and to break down the checks and balances by 
which the wisdom of its framers sought to insure its sta- 
bility and usefulness. 

The honest differences of opinion which occasionally 
exist between the Senate and President, in regard to mat- 
ters in which both are obliged to participate, are suffi- 
ciently embarrassing. But if the course recently adopted 
by the Senate shall hereafter be frequently pursued, it is 
not only obvious that the harmony of the relations be- 
tween the President and the Senate will be destroyed, but 
that other and graver effects will ultimately ensue. If the 
censures of the Senate be submitted to by the President, 
the confidence of the people in his ability and virtue, and 
the character and usefulness of his administration, will 
soon be at an end, and the real power of the government 
will fall into the hands of a body, holding their offices 
for long terms, not elected by the people, and not to them 
directly responsible. If, on the other hand, the illegal 
censures of the Senate should be resisted by the Presi- 
dent, collisions and angry controversies might ensue, dis- 
creditable in their progress, and in the end compelling 
the people to adopt the conclusion, either that their chief 
magistrate was unworthy of their respect, or that the Se- 
nate was chargeable with calumny and injustice. Either 
of these results would impair public confidence in the 
perfection of the system, and lead to serious alterations 
of its frame-work, or to the practical abandonment of 
some of its provisions. 

The influence of such proceedings in the other depart- 
ments of the government, and more especially on the 
states, could not fail to be extensively pernicious. When 
the judges in the last resort of official misconduct, them- 
selves overleaped the bounds of their authority, as pre- 
scribed by the constitution, what general disregard of its 
provisions might not their example be expected to pro- 
duce ? And who does not perceive that such contempt 
of the federal constitution, by one of its most important 
departments, would hold out the strongest temptations to 
resistance on the part of the state sovereignties, when- 



PROTEST. 225 

ever they shall suppose their just rights to have heen in- 
vaded? Thus all the independent departments of the 
government, and the states which compose our confede- 
rated union, instead of attending to their appropriate du- 
ties, and leaving those who may offend, to be reclaimed 
or punished in the manner pointed out in the constitu- 
tion, would fall to mutual crimination and recrimination, 
and give to the people confusion and anarchy, instead 
of order and law ; until at length some form of aristo- 
cratic power ..would be established on the ruins of the 
constitution, or the states be broken into separate com- 
munities. 

Far be it from me to charge, or to insinuate, that the 
present Senate of the United States intended, in the most 
distant way, to encourage such a result. It is not of their 
motives or designs, but only of the tendency of their acts, 
that it is my duty to speak. It is, if possible, to make 
Senators themselves tensible of the danger which lurks 
under the precedent set in their resolution; and at any 
rate to perform ray duty, as the responsible head of one 
of the co-equal departments of the government, that I 
have been compelled to point out the consequences to 
which the discussion and passage of the resolutions may 
lead, if the tendency of the measure be not checked in 
its inception. It is due to the high trust with which I 
have been charged ; to those who may be called to suc- 
ceed me in it ; to the representatives of the people, v/hose 
constitutional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed; 
to the people raid to the states ; and to the constitution 
they have established ; that I shall not permit its provi- 
sions to be broken down by such an attack on the execu- 
tive department, without at least some effort" to preserve, 
protect, and defend them." 

With this view, and for the reasons which have been sta- 
ted, I do hereby solemnly thotest against the afore-men- 
tioned proceedings of the Senate, as unauthorized by the 
constitution ; contrary to its spirit and to several of its 
express provisions ; subversive of that distribution of the 
powers of government which it has ordained and esta- 
blished ; destructive of the checks and safeguards by 
which those powers were intended, on the one hand to 



22G THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

be controlled, and on the other to be protected, and cal- 
culated by their immediate and collateral effects, by their 
character and tendency, to concentrate in the hands of a 
body not directly amenable to the people, a degree of in- 
fluence and power dangerous to their liberties, and fatal 
to the constitution of their choice. 

The resolution of the Senate contains an imputation 
upon my private as well as upon my public character ; 
and as it must stand forever on their journals, I cannot 
close this substitute for that defence which 1 have not 
been allowed to present in the ordinary form, without re- 
marking, that I have lived in vain, if it be necessary to 
enter into a formal vindication of my character and pur- 
pose from such an imputation. In vain do I bear upon 
my person, enduring memorials of that contest in which 
American liberty was purchased — in vain have I since 
periled property, fame, and life, in defence of the rights 
and privileges so dearly bought — in vain am I now, with- 
out a personal aspiration, or the hope of individual advan- 
tage, encountering responsibilities and dangers, from 
which, by mere inactivity in relation to a single point, I 
might have been exempt — if any serious doubts can be 
entertained as to the purity of my purpose and mo- 
tives. If I had been ambitious, I should have sought 
an alliance with that powerful institution, which even 
now aspires to no divided empire. If I had been ve- 
nal, I should have sold myself to its designs — had I 
preferred personal comfort and official ease to the per- 
formance of my arduous duty, I should cease to molest 
it. In the history of conquerors and usurpers, never, in 
the fire of youth, nor in the vigor of manhood, could I 
find an attraction to lure me from the path of duty ; and 
now, I shall scarcely find an inducement to commence 
their career of ambition, when gray hairs and a decaying 
frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle, call me to 
the contemplation of other worlds, where conquerors 
cease to be honored, and usurpers expiate their crimes. 
The only ambition I can feel, is to acquit myself to Him 
to whom I must soon render an account of my steward- 
ship, to serve my fellow-men, and live respected and ho- 
nored in (he hiptory of my country. No : the ambition 



PROTEST. 327 

which leads me on, is an anxious desire and a fixed de- 
termination to return to the people unimpaired, the sacred 
trust they have confided to my charge — to heal the wounds 
of the constitution and preserve it from further violation ; 
to persuade my countrymen, so far as I may, that it is not 
in a splendid government, supported by powerful mono- 
polies and aristocratical establishments, that they will find 
happiness, or their liberties protection ; but in a plain 
system, void of pomp — protecting all, and granting favors 
to none — dispensing its blessings like the dews of Hea- 
ven, unseen and unfelt, save in the freshness and beauty 
they contribute to produce. It is such a government that 
the genius of our people require.s — such a one only under 
which our states may remain for ages to come, united, 
prosperous, and free. If the Almighty Being who has 
hitherto sustained and protected me, will but vouchsafe 
to make my feeble powers instrumental to such a result, 
I shall anticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned 
me in the history of my country, and die contented with 
the belief that I have contributed, in some small degree, 
to increase the value and prolong the duration of Ameri- 
can liberty. 

To the end that the resolution of the Senate may not 
be hereafter drawn into precedent, with the authority of 
silent acquiescence on the part of the executive depart- 
ment, and to the end, also, that my motives and views in 
the executive proceedings denounced in that resolution, 
may be known to my fellow-citizens, to the world, and 
to all posterity, I respectfully request that this Message 
and Protest may be entered at length on the journal of 
the Senate. 

ANDREW JACKSON. 



228 THK TKUK AMERICAN 

VAN BUREN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

MARCH 4, 1837. 

Fellow-Citizens : 

The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an 
obligation I cheerfully fulfil, to accompany the first and 
solemn act of my public trust with an avowal of the prin- 
ciples that will guide me in performing it, and an expres- 
sion of my feelings on assuming a charge so responsible 
and vast. In imitating their example, I tread in the foot- 
steps of illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happi- 
ness to believe are not found on the executive calendar 
of any country. Among them we recognize the earliest 
and firmest pillars of the republic; those by whom our 
national independence was first declared ; him who, 
above all others, contributed to establish it on the field 
of battle ; and those whose expanded intellect and patriot- 
ism constructed, improved and perfected the inestimable 
institutions under which we live. If such men, in the 
position I now occupy, felt themselves overwhelmed by a 
sense of gratitude for this, the highest of all marks of 
their country's confidence, and by a consciousness of 
their inability adequately to discharge the duties of an 
ofiice so difficult and exalted, how much more must these 
considerations affect one, who can rely on no such claim 
for favor or forbearance. Unlike all who have preceded 
me, the revolution that gave us existence as one people, 
was achieved at the period of my birth ; and whilst I 
contemplate, with grateful reverence, that memorable 
event, I feel that I belong to a later age, and that I may 
not expect my countrymen to weigh my actions with the 
same kind and partial hand. 

So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances 
press themselves upon me, that I should not dare to en- 
ter upon my path of duty, did I not look for the gene- 
rous aid of those who will be associated with me in the 
various and co-ordinate branches of the government ; did 
I not repose with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, 
the intelligence and the kindness of a people who never 



VAN DLIIKN's liNALOUUAL ADUUESS. ^Z^ 

yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring in their 
cause ; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to 
hope for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and 
beneficent Providence. 

To the confidence and consolation derived from these 
sources, it would be ungrateful not to add those which 
spring from our present fortunate condition.- Though 
not altogether exempt from embarrassments that disturb 
our tranquillity at home and threaten it abroad, yet, in all 
the attributes of a great, happy, and flourishing people, 
we stand without a parallel in the world. Abroad, we 
enjoy the respect, and, with scarcely an exception, the 
frieudsiup of every nation ; at home, while our govern- 
ment quretly, but efficiently performs the sole legitimate 
end of politi-Ciil institutions, in doing the greatest good to 
the greatest number, we present an aggregate of human 
prosperity surely not elsewhere to be found. 

How imperious then, is the obligation imposed upon 
every citizen, in his own sphere of action, whether limit- 
ed or extended, to exert himself in perpetuating a condi- 
tion of things so singularly happy. All the lessons of 
history and experience must be lost upon us, if we are 
content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we hap- 
pen to possess. Position and climate, and the bounteous 
resources that nature has scattered with so liberal a 
hand — even the diffused intelligence and elevated cha- 
racter of our people — will avail us nothing, if we fail 
sacredly to uphold those political institutions that were 
wisely and deliberately formed, with reference to every 
circumstance that could preserve, or might endanger the 
blessings we enjoy. The thoughtful framers of our con- 
stitution legislated for our country as they found it. Look- 
ing upon it with the eyes of statesmen and of patriots, 
they saw all the sources of rapid and wonderful prosperi- 
ty ; but they saw, also, that various habits, opinions, and 
institutions, peculiar to the various portions of so vast a 
region, were deeply fixed. Distinct sovereignties were 
in actual existence, whose cordial union was essential to 
the welfare and happiness of all. Between many of them 
there was, at least to Bome extent, a real diversity of in- 
terests, liable to be exaggerated through sinister designs; 
20 



230 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

they differed in size, in population, in wealth, and in actual 
and prospective resources and power ; they varied in the 
character of their industry and staple productions ; and 
in some existed domestic institutions, which, unwisely 
disturbed, might endanger the harmony of the whole. 
Most carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and 
the foundation of the government laid upon principles of 
mutual concession and equitable compromise. The jea- 
lousies which the smaller states might entertain of the 
power of the rest, were allayed by a rule of representation, 
confessedly unequal at the time, and designed forever to 
remain so. A natural fear that the broad scope of gene- 
ral legislation might bear upon and unwisely control par- 
ticular interests, was counteracted by limits strictly drawn 
around the action of the federal authority ; and to the 
people and the states was left unimpaired their sovereign 
power over the innumerable subjects embraced in the 
internal government of a just republic, excepting such 
only as necessarily appertain to the concerns of the whole 
confederacy, or its intercourse, as a united community, 
with the other nations of the world. 

This provident forecast has been verified by time. 
Half a century, teeming with extraordinary events, and 
elsewhere producing astonishing results, has passed along; 
but on our institutions it has left no injurious mark. From 
a small community, we have risen to a people powerful 
in numbers and in strength ; but with our increase has 
gone hand in hand the progress of just principle ; the 
privileges, civil and religious, of the humblest individual 
are sacredly protected at home ; and while the valor and 
fortitude of our people have removed far from us the 
slightest apprehension of foreign power, they have not 
yet induced us, in a single instance, to forget what is 
right. Our commerce has been extended to the remotest 
nations ; the value, and even nature of the productions 
has been greatly changed ; a wide difference has arisen 
in the relative wealth and resources of every portion of 
our country ; yet the spirit of mutual regard and of faith- 
ful adherence to existing compacts, has continued to 
prevail in our councils, and never long been absent from 
our conduct. We have learned by experience a fruitful 



VAN buren's inaugural address. 231 

lesson ; that an implicit and undeviating adherence to 
the principles on which we set out can carry us prosper- 
ously onward through all the conflicts of circumstances, 
and the vicissitudes inseparable from the lapse of years. 

The success that has thus attended our great experi- 
ment, is, in itself, sufficient cause for gratitude, on ac- 
count of the happiness it has actually conferred, and the 
example it has unanswerably given. But to me, my fel- 
low-citizens, looking forward to the far-distant future, 
with ardent prayers and confiding hopes, this retrospect 
presents a ground for still deeper delight. It impresses 
on my mind a firm belief that the perpetuity of our in- 
stitutions depends upon themselves ; that, if we maintain 
the principles on which they were established, they are 
destined to confer their benefits on countless generations 
yet to come ; and that America will present to every 
friend of mankind the cheering proof, that a popular 
government, wisely formed, is wanting in no element of 
endurance or strength. Fifty years ago its rapid failure 
was predicted. Latent and uncontrollable causes of dis- 
solution were supposed to exist, even by the wise and 
good ; and not only did unfriendly or speculative theorists 
anticipate for us the fate of past republics, but the fear of 
many an honest patriot overbalanced his sanguine hopes. 
Look back on these forebodings, not hastily, but reluct- 
antly made, and see how, in every instance, they haA'e 
completely failed. 

An imperfect experience, during the struggles of the 
revolution, was supposed to warrant a belief that the peo- 
ple would not bear the taxation requisite to the discharge 
of an immense public debt already incurred, and to de- 
fray the necessary expenses of government. The cost of 
two wars has been paid, not only without a murmur, but 
with unequalled alacrity. No one is now left to doubt 
that every burden will be cheerfully borne that may be 
necessary to sustain our civil institutions, or guard our 
honor or our welfare. Indeed, all experience has shown 
that the willingness of the people to contribute to these 
ends, in cases of emergency, has uniformily outrun the 
confidence of their representatives. 

In the early stages of the new government, when all 



292 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

felt the imposing influence, as they recognized the une- 
qualled services of the first President, it was a common 
sentiment, that the great weight of his character could 
alone bind the discordant materials of our government 
together, and save us from the violence of contending 
factions. Since his death, nearly forty years are gone. 
Party exasperation has been often carried to its highest 
point ; the virtue and fortitude of the people have some- 
times been greatly tried ; yet our system, purified and en- 
hanced in value by all it has encountered, still preserves 
its spirit of free and fearless discussion, blended with 
unimpaired fraternal feeling. 

The capacity of the people for self-government, and 
their willingness, from a high sense of duty, and without 
those exhibitions of coercive power so generally employed 
in other countries, to submit to all needful restraints and 
exactions of the municipal law, have also been favorably 
exemplified in the history of the American states. Oc- 
casionally, it is true, the ardor of public sentiment, out- 
running the regular process of the judicial tribunals, or 
seeking to reach cases not denounced as criminal by the 
existing law, has displayed itself in a manner calculated 
to give pain to the friends of free government, and to en- 
courage the hopes of those who wish for its overthrow. 
These occurrences, however, have been less frequent in 
our country than any other of equal population on the 
globe; and with the difliusion of intelligence, it may well 
be hoped that they will constantly diminish in frequency 
and violence. The generous patriotism and sound com- 
mon sense of the great mass of our fellow-citizens, will 
assuredly, in time, produce this result ; for as every as- 
sumption of illegal power not only wounds the majesty of 
the law, but furnishes a pretext for abridging the liberties 
of the people, the latter have the most direct and perma- 
nent interest in preserving the great landmarks of social 
order, and maintaining, on all occasions, the inviolability 
of those constitutional and legal provisions which they 
themselves have made. 

In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those 
hostile emergencies which no country can always avoid, 
their fi-iends found a fruitful source of apprehension, 



VAN BUREN's inaugural ADDRESS. 233 

their enemies of hope. While they foresaw less prompt- 
ness of action than in governments differently formed, 
they overlooked the far more important considerations, 
that with us war could never be the result of individual 
or irresponsible will, but must be a measure of redress for 
injuries sustained, voluntarily resorted to by those who 
were to bear the necessary sacrifice, who would conse- 
quently feel an individual interest in the contest, and 
whose energy would be commensurate with the difficul- 
ties to be encountered. Actual events have proved their 
error : the last war, far from impairing, gave new confi- 
dence to our government ; and amid recent apprehensions 
of a similar conflict, we saw that the energies of our 
country would not be wanting in ample season to vindi- 
cate its rights. We may not possess, as we should not 
desire to possess, the extended and ever ready military 
organization of other nations ; we may occasionally suf- 
fer in the outset for the want of it, but, among ourselves, 
all doubt upon this great point has ceased, while a salu- 
tary experience will prevent a contrary opinion from in- 
viting aggression from abroad. 

Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our 
territory, the multiplication of states, and the increase of 
population. Our system was supposed to be adapted on- 
ly to boundaries comparatively narrow. These have been 
widened beyond conjecture ; the members of our confed- 
eracy are already doubled ; and the numbers of our peo- 
ple are incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of 
danger have long surpassed anticipation, but none of the 
consequences have followed. The power and influence 
of the republic have risen to a height obvious to all man- 
kind ; respect for its authority was not more apparent at 
its ancient than it is at its present limits ; new and inex- 
haustible sources of general prosperity have been opened ; 
the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive 
genius of our people, developed and fostered by the spirit 
of our institutions ; and the large variety and amount of 
interests, productions, and pursuits, have strengthened the 
chain of mutual dependence, and formed a circle of 
mutual benefits, too apparent ever to be overlooked. 

In justly balancing the powers of the federal and state 



5>^ THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

authorities, difficulties nearly Insurmountable arose at the 
outset, and subsequent collisions were deemed inevitable. 
Amid these, it was scarcely believed possible that a 
scheme of government so complex in construction, could 
remain uninjured. From time to time, embarrassments 
have certainly occurred ; but how just is the confidence 
of future safety imparted by the knowledge that each in 
succession has been happily removed. Overlooking par- 
tial and temporary evils as inseparable from the practical 
operation of all human institutions, and looking only to 
the general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied. 
While the federal government has successfully performed 
its appropriate functions in relation to foreign affairs, and 
concerns evidently national, that of every state has re- 
markably improved in protecting and developing local 
interests and individual welfare; and if the vibrations of 
authority have occasionally tended too much towards one 
or other, it is unquestionably certain that the ultimate 
operation of the entire system has been to strengthen all 
the existing institutions, and to elevate our whole country 
in prosperity and renown. 

The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent 
sources of discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our 
political condition, was the institution of domestic slavery. 
Our forefathers were deeply impressed with the delicacy 
of this subject, and they treated it with a forbearance so 
evidently wise, that, in spite of every sinister foreboding, 
it never, until the present period, disturbed the tranquil- 
lity of our common country. Such a result is sufficient 
evidence of the justice and patriotism of their course ; it 
is evidence not to be mistaken, that an adherence to it 
can prevent all embarrassment from this, as well as every 
other anticipated cause of difficulty or danger. Have 
not recent events made it obvious to the slightest reflec- 
tion, that the least deviation from this spirit of forbearance 
is injurious to every interest, that of humanity included ? 

Amidst the violence of excited passions, this generous 
and fraternal feeling has been sometimes di^^regarded ; and 
standing as I now do before my countrymen, in this high 
place of honor and trust, I cannot refrain from anxiously 
invoking my fellow-citizens never to be deaf to its die- 



VAX nVRF-N's IN'.VLCaRAL ADORHSS. 235 

tates. Perceiving, before my election, the deep interest 
this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a so- 
lemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in regard 
to it ; and now, when every motive for misrepresentation 
has passed away, I trust that they will be candidly weigh- 
ed and understood. At least they will be my standard of 
conduct in the path before me. I then declared that, if 
the desire of those of my countrymen who were favorable 
to my election was gratified, " I must go into the presi- 
dential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent 
of every attempt, on the part of Congress, to abolish sla- 
very in the District of Columbia, against the wishes of 
the slaveholding states; and also with a determination 
equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it 
in the states where it exists." I submitted also to my fel- 
low-citizens, with fulness and frankness, the reasons which 
led me to this determination. The result authorizes me 
to believe that they have been approved, and are confided 
in by a majority of the people of the United States, in- 
cluding those whom they most immediately affect. It 
now only remains to add, that no bill conflicting with 
these views can ever receive my constitutional sanction. 
These opinions have been adopted in the firm belief that 
they are in accordance with the spirit that actuated the 
venerated fathers of the republic, and that succeeding ex- 
perience has proved them to be humane, patriotic, expedi- 
ent, honorable and just. If the agitation of this subject 
was intended to reach the stability of our institutions, 
enough has occurred to show that it has signally failed; 
and that in this, as in every other instance, the apprehen- 
sions of the timid and the hopes of the wicked for the 
destruction of our government, are again destined to be 
disappointed. Here and there, indeed, scenes of danger- 
ous excitement have occurred ; terrifying instances of 
local violence have been witnessed ; and a reckles.s disre- 
gard of the consequences of their conduct has exposed 
individuals to popular indignation ; but neither masses of 
the people nor sections of the country have swerved from 
their devotion to the bond of union, and the principles it 
has made sacred. It will be ever thus. Such attempts 
at agitation may periodically return, but with each the 



236 THE TRIE AMERICAN. 

object will be better understood- That predominating 
affection for our political system which prevails through- 
out our territorial limits; that calm and enlightened judg- 
ment which ultimately governs our people as one vast 
body, will always be at hand to resist and control every 
effort, foreign or domestic, which aims or would lead to 
overthrow our institutions. 

What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as 
this! We look back on obstacles avoided and dangers 
overcome ; on expectations more than realized, and pros- 
perity perfectly secured. To the hopes of the hostile, 
the fears of the timid, and the doubts of the anxious, 
actual experience has given the conclusive reply. We 
have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable forebo- 
ding, and our constitution surmount every adverse cir- 
cumstance, dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Pre- 
sent excitement will, at all times, magnify present dangers; 
but true philosophy must teach us that none more threa- 
tening than the past can remain to be overcome ; and we 
ought, for we have just reason, to entertain an abiding 
confidence in the stability of our institutions, and an 
entire conviction that if administered in the true form, 
character, and spirit in which they were established, they 
are abundantly adequate to preserve to us and our chil- 
dren the rich blessings already derived from them ; to 
make our beloved land, for a thousand generations, that 
chosen spot where happiness springs from a perfect equal- 
ity of political rights. 

For myself, therefore, I desire to declare, that the prin- 
ciple that will govern me in the high duty to which my 
country calls me, is a strict adherence to the letter and 
spirit of the constitution, as it was designed by those who 
framed it. Looking back to it as a sacred instrument, 
carefully and not easily framed ; remembering that it was 
throughout a work of concession and compromise, view- 
ing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leav- 
ing to the people and the states all power not explicitly 
parted with, I .shall endeavor to preserve, protect and de- 
fend it, by anxiously referring to its provisions for direc- 
tion in every action. To matters of domestic concern- 
ment which it has entrusted to the federal government, 



VAN BUREn's INAUOrnAI. ADDRT.PS. 337 

and to such as relate to our intercourse with foreign na- 
tions, I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those lim- 
its I shall never pass. 

To enter, on this occasion, into a further or more 
minute exposition of my views on the various questions 
of domestic policy, would be as obtrusive as it is proba- 
bly unexpected. Before the suffrages of my countrymen 
were conferred upon me, I submitted to them, with great 
precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these 
subjects. Those opinions I shall endeavor to carry out 
with the utmost ability. 

Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and 
intelligible, as to constitute a rule of executive conduct 
which leaves little to my discretion, unless, indeed, I were 
willing to run counter to the lights of experience, and 
the known opinions of my constituents. We sedulously 
cultivate the friendship of all nations, as the condition 
most compatible with our welfare, and the principles of 
our government. We decline alliances, as adverse to our 
peace. We desire commercial relations on equal terms, 
being ever willing to give a fair equivalent for advantages 
received. We endeavor to conduct our intercourse with 
openness and sincerity ; promptly avowing our objects, 
and seeking to establish that mutual frankness which is 
as beneficial in the dealings of nations as of men. We 
have no disposition, and we disclaim all right to meddle 
in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest 
other countries ; regarding them in their actual state, as 
social communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in 
all their controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of 
our people, and our exhaustless resources, we neither an- 
ticipate nor fear any designed aggression ; and in the con- 
sciousness of our own just conduct, we feel a security 
that we shall never be called upon to exert our determina- 
tion, never to permit an invasion of our rights, without 
punishment or redress. 

In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled 
countrymen, to make the solemn promise that yet remains, 
and to pledge myself that I will faithfully execute the 
office I am about to fill, I bring with me a settled pur- 
pose to maintain the institutions of my country, which, I 
trust, will atone for the errors I commit. 



238 THE TRUE AMEniCAN. 

In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice con- 
fided to my illustrious predecessor, and which he has dis- 
charged so faithfully and so well, I know that I cannot 
expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and 
success. But, united as I have been in his counsels, a 
daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed devotion 
to his country's welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments 
which his countrymen have warmly supported, and per- 
mitted to partake largely of his confidence, I may hope 
that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be 
found to attend upon my path. For him, I but express, 
with my own, the wishes of all, that he may yet long live 
to enjoy the brilliant evening of his well-spent life, and 
for m3'self, conscious of but one desire, faithfully to serve 
my country, I throw myself, without fear, on its justice 
and kindness. Beyond that, I only look to the gracious 
protection of that Divine Being whose strengthening sup- 
port I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look 
down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of 
his providence to bless our beloved country with honors 
and with length of days; may her ways be ways of plea- 
santness, and all her paths be peace. 

-•►♦•#•♦•«- 
SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE, 

SEPTEMBER 4, 1837. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, 

and House of Representatives : 
The act of the 23d of June, 1836, regulating the de- 
posits of the public money, and directing the employ- 
ment of state, district, and territorial banks for that 
purpose, made it the duty of the secretary of the trea- 
sury to discontinue the use of such of them as should at 
any time refuse to redeem their notes in specie, and to 
substitute other banks, provided a sufficient number could 
be obtained to receive the public deposits upon the terms 
and conditions therein prescribed. The general and al- 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 239 

most simultaneous suspension of specie payments by the 
banks in May last, rendered the performance of this duty 
imperative, in respect to those which had been selected 
under the act ; and made it, at the same time, impracti- 
cable to employ the requisite number of others, upon the 
prescribed conditions. The specific regulations esta- 
blished by Congress for the deposit and safe keeping of 
the public moneys, having thus unexpectedly become im- 
perative, I felt it to be my duty to afford you an early op- 
portunity for the exercise of your supervisory powers 
over the subject. 

I was also led to apprehend that the suspension of spe- 
cie payments, increasing the embarrassments before ex- 
isting in the pecuniary affairs of the country, would so 
far diminish the public revenue, that the accruing receipts 
into the treasury would not, with the reserved five mil- 
lions, be sufficient to defray the unavoidable expenses of 
the government, until the usual period for the meeting of 
Congress ; whilst the authority to call upon the states for 
a portion of the sums deposited with them, was too re- 
stricted to enable the department to realize a sufficient 
amount from that source. These apprehensions have 
been justified by subsequent results, which render it cer- 
tain that this deficiency will occur, if additional means 
be not provided by Congress. 

The difficulties experienced by the mercantile interest 
in meeting their engagements, induced them to apply to 
me, previous to the actual suspension of specie payments, 
for indulgence upon their bonds for duties, and all the 
relief authorized by law was promptly and cheerfully 
granted. The dependence of the treasury upon the avails 
of these bonds, to enable it to make the deposits with the 
states required by law, led me in the outset to limit this 
indulgence to the 1st of September, but it has since been 
extended to the 1st of October, that the matter might be 
submitted to your further direction. 

Questions were also expected to arise, in the recess, in 
respect to the October instalment of those deposits, re- 
quiring the interposition of Congress. 

A provision of another act, passed about the same 
time, and intended to secure a faithful compliance with 



240 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

the obligation of the United States, to satisfy all demands 
upon them in specie or its equivalent, prohibiting the of- 
fer of any bank note, not convertible on the spot into 
gold or silver at the will of the holder ; and the ability 
of the government, with millions on deposit, to meet its 
engagements in the manner thus required by law, was 
rendered very doubtful by the event to which I have re- 
ferred. 

Sensible that adequate provisions for these unexpected 
emergencies could only be made by Congress; convinced 
that some of these would be indispensably necessary to 
the public service, before the regular period of your meet- 
ing ; and desirous also to enable you to exercise, at the 
earliest moment, your full constitutional powers for the 
relief of the country, I could not with propriety avoid 
subjecting you to the inconvenience of assembling at as 
early a day as the state of the popular representation 
would permit. I am sure that I have done but justice to 
your feelings, in believing that this inconvenience will be 
cheerfully encountered, in the hopes of rendering your 
meeting conducive to the good of the country. 

During the earlier stages of the revulsion through 
which we have just passed, much acrimonious discussion 
arose, and great diversity of opinion existed, as to its 
real causes. This was not surprising. The operations 
of credit are so diversified, and the influence which affect 
them so numerous, and often so subtle, that even impar- 
tial and well-informed persons are seldom found to agree 
in respect to them. To inherent difficulties were also add- 
ed other tendencies, which were by no means favorable 
to the discovery of truth. It was hardly to be expected, 
that those who disapproved the policy of the government 
in relation to the currency, would, in the excited state 
of public feeling produced by that occasion, fail to attri- 
bute to that policy any extensive embarrassment in the 
monetary affairs of the country. The matter thus be- 
came connected with the passions and conflicts of party ; 
opinions were more or less affected by political conside- 
rations ; and differences were prolonged which might 
otherwise have been determined by an appeal to facts, by 
the exercise of reason, or by mutual concession. It is, 



VAN BUUEN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 241 

however, a cheering reflection, that circumstances of thia 
nature cannot prevent a community so intelligent as ours 
from ultimately arriving at correct conclusions. Encou- 
raged by the firm belief of this truth, I proceed to state 
my views, so far as may be necessary to a clear under- 
standing of the remedies I feel it my duty to propose, 
and of the reasons by which I have been led to recom- 
mend them. 

The history of trade in the United States, for the last 
three or four years, affords the most convincing evidence 
that our present condition is chiefly to be attributed to 
over-action in all the departments of business ; an over- 
action deriving, perhaps, its first impulses from antecedent 
causes, but stimulated to its destructive consequences by 
excessive issues of bank paper, and by other facilities for 
the acquisition and enlargement of credit. At the com- 
mencement of the year 1834, the banking capital of the 
United States, including that of the national bank, then 
existing, amounted to about two hundred millions of dol- 
lars ; the bank notes then in circulation to about ninety- 
five millions ; and the loans and discounts of the banks to 
three hundred and twenty-four millions. Between that 
time and the first of January, 1836, being the latest pe- 
riod to which accurate accounts have been received, our 
banking capital was increased to more than two hundred 
and fifty-one millions ; our paper circulation to more than 
one hundred and forty millions, and the loans and dis- 
counts to more than four hundred and fifty-seven millions. 
To this vast increase are to be added the many millions 
of credit, acquired by means of foreign loans, contract- 
ed by the states and state institutions, and by the lavish 
accommodations extended by foreign dealers to our mer- 
chants. 

The consequences of this redundancy of credit, and 
the spirit of reckless speculation engendered by it, were 
a foreign debt contracted by our citizens, estimated, in 
March last, at more than thirty millions of dollars ; the 
extension to dealers in the interior of our country of cre- 
dits for supplies, greatly beyond the wants of our people ; 
the investment of thirty-nine and a half millions of dol- 
lars in unproductive public lands, in the years 1835 and 
21 



243 THE TRUE AMERICAN, 

1836, whilst in the preceding year the sales amounted to 
only four and a half millions ; the creation of debts, to 
an almost countless amount, for real estate in existing or 
anticipated cities or villages, equally unproductive, and 
at prices not seen to have been greatly disproportionate 
to their real value ; the expenditure of immense sums in 
improvements, which in many cases have been found to 
be ruinously improvident ; the diversion to other pursuits 
of much of the labor that should have been applied to 
agriculture, thereby contributing to the expenditure of 
large sums in the importation of grain from Europe — an 
expenditure which amounted, in 1834, to about two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, was in the first two quar- 
ters of the present year, increased to more than two mil- 
lions of dollars ; and finally, without enumerating other 
injurious results, the rapid growth among all classes, and 
especially in our great commercial towns, of luxurious 
habits, founded too often on merely fancied wealth, and 
detrimental alike to the industry, the resources, and the 
morals of our people. 

It was so impossible that such a state of things could 
long continue, that the prospect of revulsion was present 
to the minds of considerate men before it actually came. 
None, however, had correctly anticipated its severity. A 
concurrence of circumstances inadequate of themselves 
to produce such wide-spread and calamitous embarrass- 
ments, tended so greatly to aggravate them that they can- 
not be overlooked in considering their history. Among 
these may be mentioned as most prominent, the great loss 
of capital sustained in our commercial emporium in the 
fire of December, 1835 — a loss, the effects of which were 
underrated at the time, because postponed for a season 
by the great facilities of credit then existing ; the dis- 
turbing effects in our commercial cities, of the transfers 
of the public moneys, required by the deposit law of 
June, 1836 ; and the measures adopted by the foreign 
creditors of our merchants, to reduce their debts, and to 
withdraw from the United States a large portion of their 
specie. 

However unwilling any of our citizens may heretofore 
have been to assign to these causes the chief instrumen- 



TAN BUREn's special SESSION MESSAGE. 245 

tality in producing the present state of things, tlie deve- 
lopments subsequently made, and the actual condition of 
other commercial countries, must, as it seems to me, dis- 
pel all remaining doubts upon the subject. It has since 
appeared that evils similar to those sutTered by ourselves, 
have been experienced in Great Britain, on the continent, 
and indeed throughout the commercial world ; and that 
in other countries as well as our own, they have been 
uniformly preceded by an undue enlargement of the boun- 
daries of trade, prompted, as with us, by an unprecedent- 
ed expansion of the system of credit. A reference to the 
amount of banking capital, and the issues of paper cre- 
dits put in circulation in Great Britain, by banks and 
in other ways, during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, 
will show an augmentation of the paper currency there, 
as much disproportioned to the real wants of trade as in 
the United States. With this redundancy of the paper 
currency, there arose in that country also a spirit of ad- 
venturous speculation embracing the whole range of hu- 
man enterprise. Aid was profusely given to projected 
improvements ; large investments were made in foreign 
stocks and loans ; credits for goods were granted with 
unbounded liberality to merchants in foreign countries ; 
and all means of acquiring and employing credit were 
put in active operation, and extended in tbeir effects to 
every department of business, and to every part of the 
globe. The reaction was proportioned in its violence to 
the extraordinary character of events which preceded it. 
The commercial community of Great Britain were sub- 
jected to the greatest difficulties, and their debtors in this 
country were not only suddenly deprived of accustomed 
and expected credits, but called upon for payments, which, 
in the actual posture of things here, could only be made 
through a general pressure and at the most ruinous sa- 
crifices. 

In view of these facts it would seem impossible for in- 
quirers after truth to resist the conviction, that the causes 
of the revulsion in both countries have been substantially 
the same. Two nations, the most commercial in the 
world, enjoying but recently the highest degree of appa- 
rent prosperity, and maintaining with each other the clo- 



244 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

Best relations, are suddenly in a time of profound peace, 
and without any great national disaster, arrested in theif 
career, and plunged into a state of embarrassment and 
distress. In both countries we have witnessed the same 
redundancy of paper money, and other facilities of cre- 
dit ; the same spirit of speculation ; the same partial suc- 
cess ; the same difficulties and reverses ; and, at length, 
nearly the same overwhelming catastrophe. The most 
material diflerence between the results in the two coun- 
tries has only been, that with us there has also occurred 
an extensive derangement in the fiscal affairs of the fede- 
ral and state governments, occasioned by the suspension 
of specie payments by the banks. 

The history of these causes and effects in Great Bri- 
tain and the United States, is substantially the history of 
the revulsion in all other commercial countries. 

The present and visible effect of these circumstances 
on the operation of the government, and on the industry 
of the people, point out the objects which call for your 
immediate attention. 

They are — to regulate by law the safe-keeping, trans- 
fer, and disbursement of the public moneys ; to designate 
the funds to be received and paid by the government ; to 
enable the treasury to meet promptly every demand upon 
it; to prescribe the terms of indulgence, and the mode 
of settlement to be adopted, as well in collecting from 
individuals the revenue that has accrued, as in withdraw- 
ing it from former depositories, and to devise and adopt 
such further measures, within the constitutional compe- 
tency of Congress, as will be best calculated to revive 
the enterprise and to promote the prosperity of the 
country. 

For the deposit, transfer, and disbursement of the re- 
venue, national and state banks have always, with tempor 
rary and limited exceptions, been heretofore employed ; 
but, although advocates of each system are still to be 
found, it is apparent that the events of the last few 
months have greatly augmented the desire, long existing 
among the people of the United States, to separate the 
fiscal operations of the government from those of indivi"* 
duals or corporations. 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 245 

Again to create a national bank, as a fiscal agent, would 
be to disregard the popular will, twice solemnly and une- 
quivocally expressed. On no question of domestic poli- 
cy is there stronger evidence that the sentiments of a 
large majority are deliberately fixed ; and I cannot con- 
cur with those who think they see in recent events, a 
proof that these sentiments are, or a reason that they 
should be, changed. 

Events, similar in their origin and character, have 
heretofore frequently occurred without producing any 
such change ; and the lessons of experience must be for- 
gotten, if we suppose that the present overthrow of credit 
would have been prevented by the existence of a national 
bank. Proneness to excessive issues has ever been the vice 
of the banking system ; a vice as prominent in national 
as in state institutions. This propensity is as subservient 
to the advancement of private interests in the one as in 
the other ; and those who direct them both, being princi- 
pally guided by the same views, and influenced by the 
same motives, will be equally ready to stimulate extrava- 
gance of enterprise by improvidence of credit. How 
strikingly is this conclusion sustained by experience. 
The Bank of the United States, with the vast powers con- 
ferred on it by Congress, did not or could not prevent 
former and similar embarrassments ; nor has the still 
greater strength it has been said to possess under its pre- 
sent charter, enabled it, in the existing emergency, to 
check other institutions, or even to save itself In Great 
Britain, where it has been seen the same causes have 
been attended wiJi the same effects, a national bank, 
possessing powers far greater than are asked for by the 
warmest advocates of such an institution here, has also 
proved unable to prevent an undue expansion of credit, 
and the evils that flow from it. Nor can I find any tena- 
ble ground for the re-establishment of a national bank, in 
the derangement alleged at present to exist in the domestic 
exchanges of the country, or in the facilities it may be 
capable of affording them. Although advantages of this 
kind were anticipated when the first Bank of the United 
States was created, they were regarded as an incidental 
accommodation ; not one which the federal government 
21* 



946 THE TRUE AMERICAN, 

was bound or could be called upon to furnish. This ao 
commodation is now, indeed, after the lapse of not many 
years, demanded from it as among its first duties ; and 
an omission to aid and regulate commercial exchange, is 
treated as a ground of loud and serious complaint. Such 
results only serve to exemplify the constant desire among 
some of our citizens to enlarge the powers of the go- 
vernment, and to extend its control to subjects with which 
it should not interfere. They can never justify the crea- 
tion of an institution to promote such objects. On the 
contrary, they justly excite among the community a more 
diligent inquiry into the character of those operations of 
trade, towards which it is desired to extend such peculiar 
favors. 

The various transactions that bear the name of domes- 
tic exchanges, differ essentially in their nature, opera- 
tions, and utility. One class of them consists of bills of 
exchange, drawn for the purpose of transferring actual 
capital from one part of the country to another, or to an- 
ticipate the proceeds of property actually transmitted. 
Bills of this description are highly useful in the move- 
ments of trade, and well deserve all the encouragement 
that can rightfully be given to them. Another class is 
made up of bills of exchange, not drawn to transfer ac- 
tual capita], nor on the credit of property transmitted, 
but to create fictitious capital, partaking at once of the 
character of notes discounted in bank, and of bank notes 
in circulation, and swelling the amount of paper credits 
in a most objectionable manner. These bills have formed, 
for the last few years, a large proportion of what are 
termed the domestic exchanges of the country, serving as 
the means of usurious profit, and constituting the most 
unsafe and precarious paper in circulation. This species 
of traffic, instead of being upheld, ought to be discoun- 
tenanced by the government and the people. 

In transferring its funds from place to place, the go- 
vernment is on the same footing with the private citizen, 
and may resort to the same legal means. It may do so 
tlirough the medium of bills drawn by itself, or purchase 
from others ; aud in these operations it may, in a manner 
undoubtedly constitutional and legitimate, facilitate and 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 247 

assist exchanges of individiials founded on real transac- 
tions of trade. The exten-t to which this may be done, 
and the best means of effecting it, are entitled to the full- 
est consideration. This has been bestowed by the secre- 
tary of the treasury, and his views will be submitted to 
you in his report. 

But it was not designed by the constitution that the 
government should assume the management of domestic 
or foreign exchange. It is indeed authorized to regulate 
by law the commerce between the states, and to provide 
a general standard of value, or medium of exchange, in 
gold and silver ; but it is not its province to aid individu- 
als in the transfer of their funds, otherwise than through 
the facilities afforded by the post-office department. As 
justly might it be called on to provide for the transpor- 
tation of their merchandise. These are operations of 
trade. They ought to be conducted by those who are 
interested in them in the same manner that the incidental 
difficulties of other pursuits are encountered by other 
classes of citizens. Such aid has not been deemed neces- 
sary in other countries. Throughout Europe, the domes- 
tic as well as the foreign exchanges are carried on by 
private houses, often, if not generally, without the assist- 
ance of banks. Yet they extend throughout distinct 
sovereignties, and far exceed in amount the real ex- 
changes of the United States. There is no reason why our 
own may not be conducted in the same manner with equal 
cheapness and safety. Certainly this might be accom- 
plished if it were favored by those most deeply interested ; 
and few can doubt that their own interest, as well as the 
general welfare of the country, would be promoted by leav- 
ing such a subject in the hands of those to whom it prot 
perly belongs. A system founded on private interest, en- 
terprise and competition, without the aid of legislative 
grants or regulations by law, would rapidly prosper ; it 
would be free from the influence of political agitation, 
and extend the same exemption to trade itself; and it 
would put an end to those complaints of neglect, partiali- 
ty, injustice, and oppression, which are the unavoidable 
results of interference by the government in the proper 
concerns of individuals. All former attempts on the 



248 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

part of the government to carry its legislation in this re- 
spect further than was designed by the constitution, have, 
in the end, proved injurious, and have served only to 
convince the great body of the people, more and more, of 
the certain danger of blending private interests with 
the operations of public business ; and there is no reason 
to suppose that a repetition of them now would be more 
successful. 

It cannot be concealed that there exists in our commu- 
nity opinions and feelings on this subject in opposition to 
each other. A large portion of them, combining great 
intelligence, activity, and influence, and no doubt sincere 
in their belief that the operations of trade ought to be 
assisted by such a connection ; they regard a national 
bank as necessary for this purpose, and they are disincli- 
ned to every measure that does not tend, sooner or later, 
to the establishment of such an institution. On the other 
hand, a majority of the people are believed to be irrecon- 
cilably opposed to that measure : they consider such a 
concentration of power dangerous to their liberties ; and 
many of them regard it as a violation of the constitution. 
This collision of opinion has doubtless caused much of 
the embarrassment to which the commercial transactions 
of the country have lately been exposed. Banking has 
become a political topic of the highest interest, and trade 
has suffered in the conflict of parties. A speedy termi- 
nation of this state of things, however desirable, is 
scarcely to be expected. We have seen for nearly half a 
century that those who advocate a national bank, by 
whatever motive they may be influenced, constitute a 
portion of our community too numerous to allow us to 
hope for an abandonment of their favorite plan. On the 
other hand, they must indeed form an erroneous estimate 
of the intelligence and temper of the American people, 
who suppose that they have continued on slight or insuf- 
ficient grounds their persevering opposition to such an 
institution ; or that they can be induced by pecuniary 
pressure, or by any other combination of circumstances 
to surrender principles they have so long and so inflexi- 
bly maintained. 

My own views of the subject are unchanged. They 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 349 

have been repeatedly and unreservedly announced to my 
fellow-citizens, who, with full knowledge of them, con- 
ferred upon me the two highest offices of the government. 
On the last of these occasions, I felt it due to the people 
to apprise them distinctly that, in the event of my elec- 
tion, I would not be able to co-operate in the re-establish- 
ment of a national bank. To these sentiments I have 
now only to add the expression of an increased convic- 
tion, that the re-establishment of such a bank, in any 
form, whilst it would not accomplish the beneficial pur- 
poses promised by its advocates, would impair the right- 
ful supremacy of the popular will ; injure the character 
and diminish the influence of our political system ; and 
bring once more into existence a concentrated moneyed 
power, hostile to the spirit, and threatening the perma- 
nency of our republican institutions. 

Local banks have been employed for the deposit and 
distribution of the revenue, at all times partially, and on 
three different occasions exclusively ; first, anterior to the 
establishment of the first bank of the United States; se- 
condly, in the interval between the termination of that 
institution and the charter of its successor ; and thirdly, 
during the limited period which has now so abruptly 
closed. The connection thus repeatedly attempted, proved 
unsatisfactory on each successive occasion, notwithstand- 
ing the various measures which are adopted to facilitate 
or insure its success. On the last occasion, in the year 
1833, the employment of the state banks was guarded 
especially in every way which experience and caution 
could suggest. Personal security was required for the 
safe-keeping and prompt payment of the moneys to be 
received, and full returns of their condition were from 
time to time to be made by tlie depositaries. In the first 
stages, the measure was eminently successful, notwith- 
standing the violent opposition of the Bank of the United 
States, and the unceasing efforts made to overthrow it. 
The selected banks performed with fidelity and without 
embarrassment to themselves or to the community their 
engagements to the government, and the system promised 
to be permanently useful. But when it became necessa- 
ry, under the act of June, 1836, to withdraw from them 



250 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

the public money for the purpose of placing it in addi- 
tional institutions, or of transferring it to the states, they 
found it in many cases inconvenient to comply with the 
demands of the treasury, and numerous and pressing in- 
vitations were made for indulgence or relief. As the in- 
stalments under the deposit law became payable, their 
own embarrassments, and the necessity under which they 
lay of curtailing their discounts and calling in their debts, 
increased the general distress, and contributed, with 
other causes, to hasten the revulsion in which at length 
they, in common with other banks, were fatally involved. 

Under these circumstances, it becomes our solemn 
duty to inquire whether there are not, in any connection 
between the government and the banks of issue, evils of 
greater magnitude, inherent in its very nature, and against 
which no precautions can effectually guard. 

Unforeseen in the organization of the government, and 
forced on the treasury by early necessities, the practice 
of employing banks was, in truth, from the beginning, 
more a measure of emergency than of sound policy. 
When we started into existence as a nation, in addition 
to the burdens of the new government, we assumed all 
the large but honorable load of debt which was the price 
of our liberty ; but we hesitated to weigh down the in- 
fant industry of the country by resorting to adequate tax- 
ation for the necessary revenue. The facilities of banks, 
in return for the privileges they acquired, were promptly 
offered, and perhaps too readily received by an embar- 
rassed treasury. During the long continuance of a na- 
tional debt, and the intervening difficultifs of a foreign 
war, the connection was continued from motives of con- 
venience ; but these causes have long since passed away. 
We have no emergencies that make banks necessary to 
aid the wants of the treasury ; we have i.o load of na- 
tional debt to provide for, and we have on actual deposit 
a large surplus. No public interest, theiefore, now re- 
quires the renewal of a connection that circumstances 
have dissolved. The complete organization of our go- 
vernment, the abundance of our resources, the general 
harmony which prevails between the different states and 
with foreign powers, all enable us now to select the sys- 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 251 

tern most consistent with the constitution, and most con- 
ducive to the public welfare. Should we, then, connect 
the treasury for the fourth time with the local banks, it 
can only be under a conviction that past failures have 
arisen from accidental, not inherent defects. 

A danger, difficult if not impossible to be avoided, in 
such an arrangement, is made strikingly evident in the 
very event by which it has now been defeated. A sud- 
den act of the banks intrusted with the funds of the peo- 
ple, deprives the treasury, without fault or agency of the 
government, of the ability to pay its creditors in the cur- 
rency they have by law a right to demand. This circum- 
stance no fluctuation of commerce could have produced, 
if the public revenue had been collected in the legal cur- 
rency, and kept in that form by the officers of the trea- 
sury. The citizen whose money was in the bank re- 
ceives it back, since the suspension, at a sacrifice in its 
amount ; while he who kept it in the legal currency of 
the country, and in his own possession, pursues without 
loss the current of his business. The government, placed 
in the situation of the former, is involved in embarrass- 
ments it could not have suffered had it pursued the course 
of the latter. These embarrassments are, moreover, aug- 
mented by those salutary and just laws which forbid it to 
use a depreciated currency, and, by so doing, take from 
the government the ability which individuals have of ac- 
commodating their transactions to such a catastrophe. 

A system which can, in a time of profound peace, when 
there is a large revenue laid by, thus suddenly prevent 
the application and the use of the money of the people, 
in the manner and for the objects they have directed, can- 
not be wise ; but who can think, without painful reflec- 
tion, that under it the same unforeseen events might have 
befallen us in the midst of a war, and taken from us, at 
the moment when most wanted, the use of those very 
means which were treasured up to promote the national 
welfare and guard our national rights 1 To such embar- 
rassments and to such dangers will this government be 
always exposed, whilst it takes the moneys raised for, and 
necessary to, the public service, out of the hands of its 
own oflicers, and converts them into a mere right of ao 



252 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tion against corporations intrusted with the possession 
of them. Nor can such results be effectually guarded 
against in such a system, without investing the executive 
with a control over the banks themselves, whether state 
or national, that might with reason be objected to. OurS 
is probably the only government in the world that is lia- 
ble, in the management of its fiscal concerns, to occur- 
rences like these. But this imminent risk is not the only 
danger attendant on the surrender of the public money 
to the custody and control of local corporations. Though 
the object is to aid the treasury, its effect may be to in- 
troduce into the operations of the government, influences 
the most subtle, founded on interests the most selfish. 

The use by the banks, for their own benefit, of the 
money deposited with them, has received the sanction of 
the government from the commencement of this connec- 
tion. The money received from the people, instead of 
being kept till it is needed for their use, is, in consequence 
of this authority, a fund, on which discounts are made 
for the profit of those who happen to be owners of stock 
in the banks selected as depositories. The supposed and 
often exaggerated advantages of such a boon will always 
cause it to be sought for with avidity. I will not stop to 
consider on whom the patronage incident to it is to be 
conferred ; whether the selection and control to be trust- 
ed to Congress or to the executive, either will be subject- 
ed to appeals made in every form which the sagacity of 
interest can suggest. The banks, under such a system, 
are stimulated to make the most of their fortunate acqui- 
sition ; loans and circulation are rashly augmented, and 
when the public exigencies require a return, it is attended 
with embarrassments not provided for, nor foreseen. The 
banks that thought themselves most fortunate when the 
public funds were received, find themselves most embar- 
rassed when the season of payment suddenly arrives. 

Unfortunately, too, the evils of the system are not limit- 
ed to the banks. It stimulates a general rashness of 
enterprise, and aggravates the fluctuations of commerce 
and the currency. This result was strikingly exhibited 
during the operations of the late deposit system, and espe- 
cially in the purchases of public lands. The order which 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 253 

ultimately directed the payment of gold and silver in such 
purchases, greatly checked, but could not altogether pre- 
vent the evil. Specie was indeed more difficult to be pro- 
cured than the notes which the banks could themselves 
create at pleasure ; but still being obtained from them as 
a loan, and returned as a deposit, which they were again 
at liberty to use, it only passed round the circle with di- 
minished speed. This operation could not have been 
performed, had the funds of the government gone into the 
treasury, to be regularly disbursed, and not into the banks, 
to be loaned out for their own profit, while they were 
permitted to substitute for it a credit in account. 

In expressing these sentiments, I desire not to under- 
value the benefits of a salutary credit to any branch of 
enterprise. The credit bestowed on probity and industry 
is the just reward of merit, and an honorable incentive to 
further acquisition. None oppose it who love their coun- 
try and understand its welfare. But when it is unduly 
encouraged — when it is made to inflame the public mind 
with the temptations of sudden and unsubstantial wealth 
— when it turns industry into paths that lead sooner or 
later to disappointment and distress — it becomes liable to 
censure, and needs correction. Far from helping probity 
and industry, the ruin to which it leads fall most heavily 
on the great laboring classes, who are thrown suddenly 
out of employment, and by the failure of magnificent 
schemes, never intended to enrich them, are deprived in 
a moment of their only resource. Abuses of credit, and 
excesses in speculation will happen in despite of tlie most 
salutary laws ; no government perhaps can altogether pre- 
vent them ; but surely every government can refrain from 
contributing the stimulus that calls them into life. 

Since, therefore, experience has shown, that to lend the 
public money to the local banks, is hazardous to the 
operations of the government, at least of doubtful benefit 
to the institutions themselves, and productive of disas- 
trous derangement in the business and currency of the 
country, is it the part of wisdom again to renew the con- 
nection 1 

It is true that such an agency is in many respects con- 
venient to the treasury, but it is not indispensable. A 



254 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

limitation of the expenses af the government to its actO» 
al wants, and of the revenue to those expenses, with con- 
venient means for its prompt application to the purposes 
for which it was raised, are the objects which we should 
seek to accomplish. The collection, safe-keepiiJg, trans- 
fer and disbursements of the public money can, it is be- 
lieved, be well managed by officers of the government. 
Its collection, and, to a great extent, its disbursements 
also, have indeed been hitherto conducted solely by them , 
neither national or state banks, when employed, being 
required to do more than keep it safely while in their cus- 
tody, and transfer and pay it in such portions and at such 
time as the treasury shall direct. 

Such banks are not more able than the government io 
secure the money in their possession against accident^ 
violence, or fraud. The assertion that they are so, must 
assume that a vault in a bank is stronger than a vault in 
the treasury ; and that directors, cashiers, and clerks, not 
selected by the government, nor under its control, are 
m.ore worthy of confidence than officers selected from the 
people and responsible to the government ; officers bound 
by official oaths and bonds for a faithful performrmce of 
their duties, and constantly subject to the supervision of 
Congress. 

The difficulties of transfer, and the aid heretofore 
rendered by banks, have been less than is usually sup- 
posed. The actual accounts show that by far the larger 
portion of payments is made within short or convenient 
distances from the places of collection ; and the whole 
number of warrants issued at the treasury in the year 
1834, a year, the results of which will, it is believed, 
afford a safe test for the future, fell short of five thousand, 
on an average of less than one daily for each state ; m the 
city of New York they did not average more than two a 
day, and at the city of Washington only four. 

The difficulties heretofore existing, are, moreover, daily 
lessened by tin increase in the cheapness and facility of 
communication ; and it may be asserted with confidence, 
that the necessary transfers, as well as the safe-keeping 
and disbursements of the public moneys, can be with 
»r.fety and convenience accomplished through the agen- 



tAN BUREN^S SPECIAl- SESSION MESSAGE. 5Jo6 

cies of treasury officers. This opinion has been, in some 
degree, confirmed by actual experience since the discon- 
tinuance of banks as fiscal agents, in Moy last; a period 
which, from the embarrassments in commercial inter- 
course, presented obstacles as great as aiiy that may be 
hereinafter apprehendecL 

The manner of keeping the public money since that 
period, is fully stated in the report of the secretary of 
the treasury. That officer al^o suggests the propriety 
of astsigning, by law, certain additional duties of e.visting 
establishments and officers, which, with the modifications 
•and safeguards referred to by him, will, he thinks, ena- 
ble the department to coiitinue to perform this branch of 
the public .service, without any material addition eiiher to 
their number or to tlie present expense. The extent of 
ihe business to be transacted has already been stated ; 
and in respect to the amount of money with which the 
officers employed would be intrusted at any one time, it 
appears that, assuming a balance of five millions to be at 
sll times kept in the treasury, and the whole of it left in 
ihe hands of the collectors and receivers, the proportion 
■of each would not exceed an avera.ge of thirty thousand 
dollars; but that deducting one million for the use of 
the mint, and assuming the remaining four millions to 
be in the hands of one half of the present nunjber of 
officers — a supposition deemed more likely to correspond 
xvith the fact — the sum in the hands of each vvo'jld still 
he less than the amount of most of the bonds now taken 
from the receivers of public money. Every a!>prehen- 
sion, however, on the subject, either in respect to the safe- 
ty of the money or the faithful discharge of these fiscal 
transactions, may, it appears to me, be effectually remo- 
ved by adding lo the present means of the treasury, the 
establishment by law, at a few important points, of offices 
for the deposit and disbursement of such portions of pub- 
lic revenue as cannot, with obvious safety and convenience, 
be left in the possession of the collecting officers until 
paid over by them to the public creditors. Neither the 
amounts retained in their hands, nor those deposited in 
the offices, would, in an ordinary condition of the reve- 
»ue, be larger in most cases than those often under the 



256 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

control of disbursing officers of the army and navy, and 
miglit be made entirely safe, by requiring such securities, 
and exercising such controlling supervision, as Congress 
may by law prescribe. The principal officers whose 
appointments would become necessary under this plan, 
taking the largest number suggested by the secretary of 
the treasury, would not exceed ten ; nor the additional 
expenses, at the same estimate, sixty thousand dollars a 
year. 

There can be no doubt of the obligation of those who 
are intrusted with the affairs of government, to conduct 
Ihem with as little cost to the nation as is consistent with 
the public interest ; and it is for Congress, and ultimately 
for the people, to decide whether the benefits to be de- 
rived from keeping our fiscal concerns apart, and severing 
the connection which has hitherto existed between the 
government and banks, offer sufficient advantages to jus- 
tify the necessary expenses. If the object to be accom- 
plished is deemed important to the future welfare of the 
country, I cannot allow myself to believe that the addi- 
tion to the public expenditure of comparatively so small 
an amount as will be necessary to effect it, will be object- 
ed to by the people. 

It will be seen by the report of the postmaster-general, 
herewith communicated, that the fiscal affairs of that de- 
partment have been successfully conducted since May 
last, upon the principle of dealing only in the legal cur- 
rency of the United States, and that it needs no legisla- 
tion to maintain its credit, and facilitate (he management 
of its concerns ; the existing laws being, in the opinion 
of that officer, ample for those objects. 

Difficulties will, doubtless, be encountered for a season, 
and increased services required from the public function 
aries; such are usually incident to the commencement 
of every system, but they will be greatly lessened in the 
progress of its operations. 

The power and influence supposed to be connected 
with the custody and disbursement of the public money, 
are topics on which the public mind is naturally, and with 
great propriety, peculiarly sensitive. Much has been said 
of them, in reference to the proposed separation of the 



YAN BUKEn's special SESSION iMESSAGE. 957 

government from the banking institutions ; and surely no 
one can object to any appeals or animadversions on the 
subject, which are consistent vi'ith facts, and evince a 
proper respect for the intelligence of the people. If a 
chief magistrate may be allowed to speak for himself, on 
such apoint, I can truly say, that to me nothing would be 
more acceptable than the withdrawal from the executive, 
to the greatest practicable extent, of all concern in the 
disbursement of the public revenue, not that I would 
shrink from any responsibilty cast upon me by the duties 
of my office, but because it is my firm belief, that its capa- 
city for usefulness is in no degree promoted by the pos- 
session of any patronage not actually necessary to the 
performance of those duties. But under our present form 
of government, the intervention of the executive officers 
in the custody and disbursements of the public money 
seems to be unavoidable; and before it can be admitted 
that the influence and power of the executive would be 
increased by dispensing with the agency of banks, the 
nature of that intervention in such an agency must be 
carefully regarded, and a comparison must be instituted 
between its extent in the two cases. 

The revenue can only he collected by officers appointed 
by the President, with the advice and consent of the sen- 
ate. The public moneys in the first instance, must there- 
fore, in all cases, pass through hands selected by the ex 
ecutive. Other officers appointed in the same way, or, 
as in some cases, by the President alone, must also be 
intrusted with them when drawn for the purpose of dis- 
bursements. It is thus seen that even when banks are em- 
ployed, the public funds must twice pass through the hands 
of the executive officers. Besides this, the head of the 
treasury department, who also holds his office at the plea- 
sure of the President, and some other officers of the same 
departments, must necessarily be invested with more or 
less power in the selection, continuance, and supervision 
of the banks that may be employed. The question is 
then narrowed to the single point, whether in the inter- 
mediate stage between the collection and disbursement 
of the public money, the agency of banks is necessary to 
avoid a dangerous extension of the patronage and influ- 
22* 



253 THE TRUE AMKRICAN. 

ence of the executive ? But is it clear that the connec- 
tion of the executive with powerful moneyed institutions, 
capable of ministering to the interests of men in points 
where they are most accessible to corruption, is less lia- 
ble to abuse, than his constitutional agency in the ap- 
pointment and control of the few public officers required 
by the proposed plan ? Will the public money, when in 
their hands be necessarily exposed to any improper inter- 
ference on the part of the executive ? May it not be 
hoped that a prudent fear of public jealousy and disap- 
probation, in a matter so peculiarly exposed to them, will 
deter him from any such interference, even if higher mo- 
tives be found inoperative l May not Congress so regu- 
late by law the duty of those officers, and subject it to 
such supervision and publicity as to prevent the possibility 
of any serious abuse on the part of the executive ? And 
is there equal room for such supervision and publicity in 
a connection with banks, acting under the shield of cor- 
porate immunities, and conducted by persons irresponsible 
to the government and to the people l It is believed that 
a considerate and candid investigation of these questions 
will result in the conviction, that the proposed plan is far 
less liable to objection, on the score of executive patron- 
age and control, than any bank agency that has been, or 
can be devised. 

With these views, I leave to Congress the measures 
necessary to regulate, in the present emergency, the safe- 
keeping and transfer of the public moneys. In the per- 
formance of constitutional duty, I have stated to them, 
without reserve, the result of my own reflections. The 
subject is of great importance ; and one on which we can 
scarcely expect to be united in sentiment as we are in 
interest. It deserves a full and free discussion, and can- 
not fail to be benefitted by a dispassionate comparison of 
opinions. Well aware myself of the duty of reciprocal 
concession among the co-ordinate branches of the gov- 
ernment, I can promise a reasonable spirit of co-opera- 
tion, so far as it can be indulged in without the surrender 
of constitutional objections which I believe to be well 
founded. Any system that may be adopted, should be 
subjected to the fullest legal provision, so as to leave no- 



VAN BUREn's special SESSION MESSAGE. 259 

thing to the executive but what is necessary to the dis- 
charge of the duties imposed on him ; and whatever plan 
may be ultimately established, my own part shall be so 
discharged as to give a fair trial, and the best prospect of 
success. 

The character of the funds to be received and dis- 
bursed in the transactions of the government, likewise 
demands your most careful consideration. 

There can be no doubt that those who framed and 
adopted the constitution, having in immediate view the 
depreciated paper of the confederacy — of which 500 dol- 
lars in paper were at times only equal to one dollar in 
coin — intended to prevent the recurrence of similar evils, 
so far at least as related to the transactions of the new 
government They gave to Congress express powers to 
coin money, and to regulate the value thereof, and of 
foreign coin ; they refused to give it power to establish 
corporations, the agents then, as now, chiefly employed 
to create a paper currency ; they prohibited the states 
from making any thing but gold and silver a legal tender 
in payment of debts : and the first Congress directed, by 
positive law, that the revenue should be received in no- 
thing but gold and silver. 

Public exigency at the outset of the government, with- 
out direct legislative authority, led to the use of banks as 
fiscal aid to the treasury. In admitted deviation from the 
law, at the same period, and under the same exigency, 
the secretary of the treasury received their notes in pay- 
ment of duties. The sole ground on which the practice, 
thus commenced, was then or has since been justified, is 
the certain, immediate, and convenient exchange of such 
notes for specie. The government did indeed receive 
the inconvertible notes of state banks during the diffi- 
culties of war ; and the community submitted without a 
murmur to the unequal taxation and multiplied evils of 
which such a course was productive. With the war, this 
indulgence ceased, and the banks were obliged again to re- 
deem their notes in gold and silver. The treasury, in accor- 
dance with the previous practice, continued to dispense 
with the currency required by the act of 1789, and took 
the notes of banks in full confidence of their being paid 



S60 THE TRUE AMERICAff. 

in specie on demand ; and Congress, to guard against the 
slightest violation of this principle, have declared, by law, 
that if notes are paid in the transactions of the govern- 
ment, it must be under such circumstances as to enable 
the holder to convert them into specie without deprecia- 
tion or delay. 

Of my own duties under the existing laws, when the 
banks suspended specie payments, I could not doubt. Di- 
rections were immediately given to prevent the reception 
into the treasury of any thing but gold and silver, or its 
equivalent : and every practicable arrangement was made 
to preserve the public faith, by similar and equivalent 
payments to the public creditors. The revenue from lands 
had been for some time substantially so collected, under 
the order issued by my predecessor. The effects of that 
order had been so salutary, and its forecast, in regard to 
the increasing insecurity of bank paper, had become so 
apparent, that even before the catastrophe, I had resolved 
not to interfere with its operation. Congress is now to 
decide whether the revenue shall continue to be so collect- 
ed or not. 

The receipts into the treasury of bank notes not redeem- 
ed in specie on demand, will not, I presume, be sanctioned. 
It would destroy, without the excuse of war or public 
distress, that equality of imports, and identity of com- 
mercial regulation, which lie at the foundation of our 
confederacy, and would offer to each state a direct tempta- 
tion to increase its foreign trade by depreciating the cur- 
rency received for duties in its imports. Such a proceed- 
ing would also in a great degree frustrate the policy so 
highly cherished of infusing into our circulation a large 
proportion of the preciovis metals ; a policy, the wisdom 
of which none can doubt, though there may be different 
opinions as to the extent to which it should be carried. 
Its results have been already too auspicious, and its suc- 
cess is too closely interwoven with the future prosperity 
of the country, to permit us for a moment to contemplate 
its abandonment. We have seen, under its influence, our 
specie augmented beyond eighty millions ; our coinage 
increased so as to make that of gold amount between 
August, 1835, and December, 1836, to ten millions of 



TAN BUREn's special SESSION MESSAGE. 261 

dollars ; exceeding the whole coinage at the mint during 
the thirty-one previous years. The prospect of further 
improvement continued without abatement, until the mo- 
ment of the suspension of specie payments. This policy 
has now indeed been suddenly checked, but is still far 
from being overthrown. Amidst all conflicting theories, 
one position is undeniable ; the precious metals will inva- 
riably disappear when there ceases to be a necessity for 
their use as a circulating medium. It was in strict 
accordance with this truth, that whilst, in the month of 
May last, they were every where seen, and were current 
for all ordinary purposes, they disappeared from circula- 
tion the moment the payment of specie was refused by 
the banks, and the community tacitly agreed to dispense 
with its employment. Their place was supplied by a 
currency exclusively of paper, and in many cases of the 
worst description. Already are the bank notes in circu- 
lation greatly depreciated, and they fluctuate in value be- 
tween one place and another ; thus diminishing and ma- 
king uncertain the worth of property and the price of 
labor, and failing to subserve, except at a heavy loss, the 
purposes of business. With each succeeding day the 
metallic currency decreases ; by some it is hoarded, in 
the natural fear that once parted with, it cannot be re- 
placed ; while by others it is diverted from its legiti- 
mate uses for the sake of gain. Should Congress sanction 
this condition of things by making irredeemable paper 
receivable in payment of public dues, a temporary check 
to a wise and salutary policy will in all probability be 
converted into its absolute destruction. 

It is true that bank notes actually convertible into spe- 
cie may be received in payment of the revenue without 
being liable to all these objections, and that such a course 
may to some extent promote individual convenience ; an • 
object always to be considered where it does not conflict 
with the principles of our government or the general 
welfare of the country. If such notes only were received, 
and always under circumstances allowing their early pre- 
sentation for payment, and if at short and fixed periods, 
they were converted into specie, to be kept by the trea- 
sury, some of the most serious obstacles to their recap- 



SC3 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tion would perhaps be removed. To retain the notes in 
the treasury would be to renew, under another form, the 
loans of public money to the banks, and the evils conse- 
quent thereon. 

It is, however, a mistaken impression that any large 
amount of specie is required for public payments. Of 
the seventy or eighty millions now e.stimated to be in the 
country, ten millions would be abundantly sufficient for 
thai purpose, provided an accumulation of a large amount 
of revenue, beyond the necessary wants of the govern- 
ment, be hereafter prevented. If to these considerations 
be added the facilities which will arise from enabling the 
treasury to satisfy the public creditors by its drafts or 
notes received in payment of the public dues, it may be 
safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the citi- 
zen requires the reception of bank paper. 

To say that the refusal of paper money by the govern- 
ment, introduces an unjust discrimination between the 
currency received by it, and that used by individuals in 
their ordinary affairs, is, in my judgment, to view it in a 
very erroneous light. The constitution prohibits the 
states from making any thing but gold and silver a tender 
in the payment of debts, and thus secure to every citizen, 
a right to demand payment in the legal currency. To 
provide by law that the government will only receive its 
dues in gold and silver, is not to confer on it any pecu- 
liar privilege ; but merely to place it on an equality with 
the citizen, by reserving to it a right secured to him by 
the constitution. It is doul)tless for this reason that the 
principle has been sanctioned by successive laws, from 
the time of the first Congress under the constitution down 
to the last. Such precedent, never objected to, and pro- 
ceeding from such sources, affords a decisive answer to 
the imputation of inequality or injustice. 

But, in fact, the measure is one of restriction, not of 
favor. To forbid the public agent to receive in payment 
any other than a certain kind of money, is to refuse him 
a discretion possessed by every citizen. It may be lefl 
to those who have the management of their own transac- 
tions, to make their own terms ; but no such discretion 
should be given to him who acts merely as an agent of 



TAN BURt:.\'s SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE. 2(53 

the people, who is to collect what the law requires, and 
to pay the appropriations it makes. When bank notes 
are redeemed on demand, there is then no discrimination 
in reality, for the individual who receives them may at 
his option substitute the specie for them ; he takes them 
from convenience or choice. When they are not so re- 
deemed, it will scarcely be contended that their receipt 
and payment by a public officer should be permitted, 
though none deny that right to an individual : if it were, 
the effect would be most injurious to the public, since 
their officer could make none of those arrangements to 
meet or guard against the depreciation, which an indivi- 
dual is at liberty to do. Nor can inconvenience to the 
community be alleged as an objection to such a regula- 
tion. Its object and motive are their convenience and 
welfare. 

If, in a moment of simultaneous and unexpected sus- 
pension by the banks, it adds something to the many em- 
barrassments of that proceeding, yet these are far over- 
balanced by its direct tendency to produce a wider cir- 
culation of gold and silver, to increase the s'tfety of bank 
paper, to improve the general currency, and thus prevent 
altogether such occurrences, and the other and fdr greater 
evils that attended them. 

It may, indeed, be questioned, whether it is not for the 
interest of the banks themselves that the government 
should not receive their paper. They would be conducted 
with more caution, and on sounder principles. By using 
specie only in its transactions, the government would cre- 
ate a demand for it, which would, to a great extent, pre- 
vent its exportation, and by keeping it in circulation, 
maintain a broader and safer basis for the prsper curren- 
cy. That the banks would thus be rendered more 
sound, and the community more safe, cannot admit of a 
doubt. 

The foregoing views, it seems to me, do but fairly carry 
out the provisions of the federal constitution in relation 
to the currency, as far as relates to the public revenue. 
At the time when that instrument was framed, there were 
but three or four banks in the United States ; and had 
the extension of the banking system, and the evils grow- 



264 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

ing out of It, been foreseen, they would probably have 
been specially guarded against. The same policy which 
led to the prohibition of bills of credit by the states, 
would doubtless, in that event, have also interdicted their 
issue as a currency in any other form. The constitu- 
tion, however, contains no such prohibition ; and, since 
the states have exercised, for nearly half a century, the 
power to regulate the business of banking, it is not to be 
expected that it will be abandoned. The whole matter 
is now under discussion before the proper tribunal — the 
people of the states. Never before has the public mind 
been so thoroughly awakened to a proper sense of its im- 
portance; never has the subject in all its bearings been 
submitted to so searching an inquiry. It would be dis- 
trusting the intelligence and virtue of the people, to doubt 
the speedy and efficient adoption of such measures of re- 
form as the public good demands. All that can rightfully 
be done by the federal government to promote the accom- 
plishment of that important object will, without doubt, 
be performed. 

In the mean time, it is our duty to provide all the reme- 
dies against a depreciated paper currency which the con- 
stitution enables us to afford. The treasury department, 
on several former occasions, has suggested the propriety 
and importance of a uniform law concerning bankrupt- 
cies of corporations and other bankers. Through the 
instrumentality of such a law, a salutary check may doubt- 
less be imposed on the issues of paper money, and an ef- 
fectual remedy given to the citizens in a way at once 
equal in all parts of the Union, and fully authorized by 
the constitution. 

The indulgence granted by executive authority in the 
payment of bonds for duties, has been already mentioned. 
Seeing that the immediate enforcement of these obliga- 
tions would subject a large and highly respectable por- 
tion of our citizens to great sacrifices, and believing that 
a temporary postponement could be made without detri- 
ment to other interests, and with increased certainty of 
ultimate payment, I did not hesitate to comply with the 
request that was made of me. The terms allowed are to 
the full extent as liberal as any that are to be found in the 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 265 

practice of the executive department. It remains for 
Congress to decide whether a further postponement may 
not with propriety be allowed, and if so, their legislation 
on the subject is respectfully invited. 

The report of the secret:iry of the treasury will exhi- 
bit the condition of these debts ; the extent and effect 
of the pr-esent indulgence ; the probable result of its fur- 
ther extension of the state of the treasury, and every 
other fact necessary to a full consideration of the subject. 
Similar information is communicated in regard to such 
depositories of the public moneys as are indebted to the 
government, in order that Congress may also adopt the 
proper measures in regard to them. 

The receipts and expenditures for the first half of the 
year, and an estimate of those for the residue, will be laid 
before you by the secretary of the treasury. In his report 
of December last, it was estimated that the current re- 
ceipts would fall short of the expenditures by about three 
millions of dollars. It will be seen that the difference 
will be much greater. This is to be attributed not only 
to the occurrence of greater pecuniary embarrassments 
in the business of the country than those which were then 
predicted, and consequently, a greater diminution in the 
revenue, but also to the fact that the appropriations ex- 
ceeded, by nearly six millions, the amount which was 
asked for in the estimates then submitted. The sum ne- 
cessary for the service of the year, beyond the probable 
receipts, and the amount which it was intended should be 
reserved in the treasury at the commencement of the year, 
will be about six millions. If the whole of the reserved 
balance be not at once applied to the current expendi- 
tures, but four nlillions be still kept in the treasury, as 
seems most expedient for the uses of the mint, and to 
meet contingencies, the sum needed will be ten millions. 

In making this estimate, the receipts are calculated on 
the supposition of some further extension of the indul- 
gence granted in the payment of bonds for duties, which 
will affect the amount of the revenue for the present 
year to the extent of two and a half millions. 

It is not proposed to procure the required amount by 
loans or increased taxation. There are now in the trea- 
23 



266 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

sury $9,377,214, directed by the act of the 23d of June, 
1836, to be deposited with the states in October next. 
This sum, if so deposited, will be subject under the law 
to be recalled if needed, to defray the existing appropria- 
tions ; and as it is now evident that the whole, or the 
principal part of it, will be wanted for that purpose, it 
appears most proper that the deposit should be withheld. 
Until the amount can be collected from the banks, trea- 
sury notes may be temporarily issued, to be gradually 
redeemed as it is received. 

I am aware that this course may be productive of in- 
convenience to many of the states. Reiving upon the 
acts of Congress w-hich held out to them the- strong pro- 
bability, if not the certainty, of receiving this instalment, 
they have in some instances adopted measures with which 
its retention may "seriously interfere. That such a con- 
dition of things should have occurred is much to be re- 
gretted. It is not the least among the unfortunate results 
of the disasters of the times ; and it is for Congress to 
devise a fit remedy, if there be one. The money being 
indispensable to the wants of the treasury, it is difficult to 
conceive upon what principle of justice or expediency its 
application to that object can be avoided. To recall any 
portions of the sums already deposited with the states, 
would be more inconvenient and less efficient. To bur- 
den the country with increased taxation, when there is in 
fact a large surplus revenue, would be unjust and unwise ; 
to raise moneys by loans under such circumstances, and 
thus to commence a new national debt, would scarcely be 
sanctioned by the American people. 

The plan proposed will be adequate to all our fiscal 
operations, during the remainder of the year. Should it 
be adopted, the treasury, aided by the ample resources 
of the country, will be able to discharge, punctually, 
every pecuniary obligation. For the future, all that is 
needed will be that caution and forbearance in appropri- 
ations which the diminution of the revenue requires, and 
which the complete accomplishment or great forwardness 
of many expensive national undertakings renders equally 
consistent with prudence and patriotic liberality. 

The preceding suggestions and recommendations are 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 267 

submitted, in the belief that their adoption by Congress 
will enable the executive department to conduct the fiscal 
concerns with success, so far as their management has 
been committed to it. Whilst the objects and the means 
proposed to attain them are within its constitutional pow- 
ers and appropriate duties, they will, at the same time, it 
is hoped, by their necessary operation, afford essential 
aid in the transaction of individual concerns, and thus 
yield relief to the people at large, in a form adapted to 
the nature of our government. Those who look to the 
action of this government for specific aid to the citizen 
to relieve embarrassments arising from losses by revul- 
sions in commerce and credit, lose sight of the ends for 
which it was created, and the powers with which it is 
clothed. It was established to give security to us all, in 
our lawful and honorable pursuits, under the lasting safe- 
guard of republican institutions. It was not intended to 
confer special favors on individuals, or on any classes of 
them ; to create systems of agriculture, manufactures, or 
trade ; or to engage in them, either separately or in con- 
nection with individual citizens or organized associations. 
If its operations were to be directed for the benefit of 
any class, equivalent favors must, in justice, be extended 
to the rest ; and the attempt to bestow such favors with 
an equal hand, or even to select those who should most 
deserve them, wovld never be successful. 

All communities are apt to look to government for too 
much. Even in our own country, where its powers and 
duties are so strictly limited, we are prone to do so, espe- 
cially at periods of sudden embarrassment and distress. 
But this ought not to be. The framers of our excellent 
constitution, and the people who approved it with calm 
and sagacious deliberation, acted at the time on a sounder 
principle. They wisely judged that the less government 
interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general 
prosperity. It is not its legitimate object to make men 
rich, or to repair, by direct grants of money or legislation 
in favor of particular pursuits, losses not incurred in pub- 
lic service. This would be substantially to use the pro- 
perty of some for the benefit of others. Bixt its real duty 
— that duty, the performance of which makes a good 



268 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

government the most precious of human blessings — is to 
enact and enforce a system of general laws commensu- 
rate with, but not exceeding, the objects of its establish- 
ment, and leave every citizen and every interest to reap, 
under its benign protection, the reward of virtue, indus- 
try, and prudence. 

I cannot doubt that on this, as on all similar occasions, 
the federal government will find its agency most condu- 
cive to the security and happiness of the people, when 
limited to the exercise of its conceded powers. In never 
assuming, even for a well-nieant object, such powers as 
were not designed to be conferred upon it, we shall, in 
reality, do most for the general welfare. To avoid every 
unnecessary interference with the pursuits of the citizen, 
will result in more benefit than to adopt measures which 
could only assist limited interests, and are eagerly, but 
perhaps naturally, sought for, under the pressure of tem- 
porary circumstances. If, therefore, I refrain from sug- 
gesting to Congress any specific plan for regulating the 
exchanges of the country — relieving mercantile embar- 
rassments — or interfering with the ordinary operations of 
foreign or domestic commerce — it is from a conviction 
that such measures are not within the constitutional pro- 
vince of the general government, and that their adoption 
would not promote the real and permanent welfare of 
those they miglit be designed to aid. 

The dirhculties and distresses of the times, though un- 
questionably great, are limited in their extent, and cannot 
be regarded as affecting the permanent prosperity of the 
nation. Arising, in a great degree, from the transactions 
of foreign and domestic commerce, it is upon them that 
they have chiefly fallen. The great agricultural interest 
has, in many parts of the country, suffered comparatively 
little ; and as if Providence intended to display the munifi- 
cence of its goodness at the moment of our greatest need, 
and in direct contrast to the evils occasioned by the way- 
wardness of man, we have been blessed throughout our 
extended territory with a season of general health and of 
uncommon fruitfulness. The proceeds of our great sta- 
ple will soon furnish the means of liquidating debts at 
borne and abroad, and contribute equally to the revival 



VAN BUREN's special SESSION MESSAGE. 269 

of commercial activity, and the restoration of commer- 
cial credit. The banks, established avowedly for its sup- 
port, deriving their profits from it, and resting under ob- 
ligations to it which cannot be overlooked, will feel at 
once the necessity and justice of uniting their energies 
with those of the mercantile interest. 

The suspension of specie payments, at such a time 
and under such circumstances as we have lately wit- 
nessed, could not be other than a temporary measure ; 
and we can scarcely err in believing that the period 
must soon arrive when all that are solvent will redeem 
their issues in gold and silver. Dealings abroad naturally 
depend on resources and prosperity at home. If the 
debt of our merchants has accumulated, or their cre- 
dit is impaired, these are fluctuations always incident to 
extensive or extravagant mercantile transactions. But 
the ultimate security of such obligations does not admit 
of question. They are guarantied by the resources of 
a country, the fruits of whose industry afford abundant 
means of ample liquidation, and by the evident interest 
of every merchant to sustain a credit hitherto high, by 
promptly applying these means for its preservation. 

I regret that events have occurred which require me to 
ask your consideration of such serious topics. I could have 
wished that, in making my first communication to the 
assembled representatives of my country, I had nothing to 
dwell upon but the history of her unalloyed prosperity. 
Since it is otherwise, we can only feel more deeply the 
responsibdity of the respective trusts that have been confi- 
ded to us, and under the pressure of difficulties, unite in 
invoking the guidance and aid of the Supreme Ruler of 
nations, and in laboring with zealous resolution to over- 
come the difficulties by which we are environed. 

It is, under such circumstances, a high gratification to 
know, by long experience, that we act for a people to 
whom the truth, however unpromising, can always be spo- 
ken with safety ; for the trial of whose patriotism no emer- 
gency is too severe, and who are sure never to desert a 
public functionary honestly laboring for the public good. 
It seems just that they should receive, without delay, any 
aid in their embarrassments which your deliberations can 
23* 



270 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

afford. Coming directly from the midst of them, and 
knowing the course of events in every section of our 
country, from you may best be learned as well the extent 
and nature of these embarrassments, as the most desira- 
ble measure of relief 

I am aware, however, that it is not proper to detain 
you at present, any longer than may be demanded by the 
special objects for which you are convened. To them, 
therefore, I have confined my communication ; and be- 
lieving it would not be your own wish to extend your 
deliberations beyond them, I reserve till the usual period 
of your annual meeting, that general information of the 
state of the Union which the constitution requires me to 
ffive. 



VAN BUREN'S FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, 

DECEMBER 4, 1837. 

To the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 
We have reason to renew the expression of our devout 
gratitude to the Giver of all good for his benign protec- 
tion. Our country presents on every side the evidences 
of that continued favor under whose auspices it has 
gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies 
to a prosperous and powerful confederacy. We are 
blessed with domestic tranquillity and all the elements of 
national prosperity. The pestilence which, invading for 
a time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted 
the general prevalence of unusual health, has happily 
been limited in extent, and arrested in its fatal career. 
The industry and prudence of our citizens are gradually 
relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments un- 
der which portions of them have labored ; judicious le- 
gislation, and the natural and boundless resources of the 
country, have afforded wise and timely aid to private 
enterprise ; and the activity always characteristic of our 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 271 

people has already in a great degree resumed its usual 
and profitable channels. 

The condition of our foreign relations has not mate- 
rially changed, since the last annual message of my pre- 
decessor. We remain in peace with all nations ; and no 
efforts on my part, consistent with the preservation of our 
rights and the honor of our country, shall be spared to 
maintain a position so consonant to our institutions. We 
have faithfully sustained the foreign policy with which the 
United States, under the guidance of their first President, 
took their stand in the family of nations — that of regula- 
ting their intercourse with other powers by the approved 
principles of private life; asking and according equal 
rights and equal privileges ; rendering and demanding 
justice in all cases ; advancing their own and discussing 
the pretensions of others, with candor, directness and sin- 
cerity ; appealing at all times to reason, but never yield- 
ing to force, nor seeking to acquire any thing for them- 
selves by its exercise. 

A rigid adherence to this policy has left this govern- 
ment with scarcely a claim upon its justice, for injuries 
arising from acts committed by its authority. The most 
imposing and perplexing of those of the United States 
upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citi- 
zens, were disposed of by my predecessor. Independent- 
ly of the benefits conferred upon our citizens by restoring 
to the mercantile community so many millions of which 
they had been wrongfully divested, a great service was also 
rendered to his country by the satisfactory adjustment of 
so many ancient and irritating subjects of contention ; 
and it reflects no ordinary credit on his successful ad- 
ministration of public affairs, that this great object was 
accomplished without compromising, on any occasion, 
either the honor or the peace of the nation. 

With European powers, no new subjects of difficulty 
have arisen ; and those which were under discussion, al- 
though not terminated, do not present a more unfavora- 
ble aspect for the future preservation of that good under- 
standing which it has ever been our desire to cultivate. 

Of pending questions, the most important is that which 
exists with the government of Great Britain, in respect to 



272 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

our north-eastern boundary. It is with unfeigned regret 
that the people of the United States must look back upon 
the abortive eiforts made by the executive, for a period 
of more than half a century, to determine, what no nation 
should suffer long to remain in dispute, the true line 
which divides its possessions from those of other powers. 
The nature of the settlement on the borders of the Uni- 
ted States, and of the neighboring territory, was for a 
season such, that this perhaps was not indispensable to a 
faithful performance of the duties of the federal govern- 
ment. 

Time has, however, changed this state of things ; and 
has brought about a condition of affairs, in which the 
true interests of both countries imperatively require that 
this question should be put at rest. It is not to be dis- 
guised, that with full confidence, often expressed, in the 
desire of the British government to terminate it, we are 
apparently as far from its adjustment as we were at the 
time of signing the treaty of peace in 1783. The sole 
result of long-pending negotiations, and a perplexing ar- 
bitration, appears to be a conviction, on its part, that a 
conventional line must be adopted, from the impossibility 
of ascertaining the true one according to the description 
contained in that treaty. Without coinciding in this 
opinion, which is not thought to be well founded, my pre- 
decessor gave the strongest proof of the earnest desire of 
the United States to terminate satisfactorily this dispute, 
by proposing the substitution of a conventional line, if the 
consent of the states interested in the question could be 
obtained. 

To this proposition, no answer has yet been received. 
The attention of the British government, however, has 
been earnestly invited to the subject, and its reply cannot, 
I am confident, be much longer delayed. The general 
relations between Great Britain and the United States are 
of the most friendly character, and I am well satisfied of 
the sincere disposition of that government to maintain 
them upon their present footing. This disposition has 
also, I am persuaded, become more general with the peo- 
ple of England than at any previous period. It is scarce- 
ly necessary to say to you, how cordially it is reciproca- 



TAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 273 

ted by the government and the people of the United 
States. The conviction which must be common to all, 
of the injurious consequences that result from keeping 
open this irritating question, and the certainty that its final 
settlement cannot be much longer deferred, will, I trust, 
lead to an early and satisfactory adjustment. At your 
last session I laid before you the recent communications 
between the two governments and between this govern- 
ment and that of the state of Maine, in whose solicitude, 
concerning a subject in which she has so deep an inte- 
rest, every portion of the Union participates. 

The feelings produced by a temporary interruption of 
those harmonious relations between France and the Uni- 
ted States, which are due as well to the recollections of 
former times as to a correct appreciation of existing in- 
terests, have been happily succeeded by a cordial dispo- 
sition on both sides to cultivate an active friendship in 
their future intercourse. The opinion, undoubtedly cor- 
rect, and steadily entertained by us, that the commercial 
relations at present existing between the two countries, 
are susceptible of great and reciprocally beneficial im- 
provements, is obviously gaining ground in France ; and 
I am assured of the disposition of that government to fa- 
vor the accomplishment of such an object. This dispo- 
sition shall be met in a proper spirit on our part. The 
few and comparatively unimportant questions that re- 
main to be adjusted between us, can, I have no doubt, be 
settled with entire satisfaction, and without difficulty. 

Between Russia and the United States, sentiments of 
good-will continue to be mutually cherished. Our mi- 
nister recently accredited to that court, has been received 
with a frankness and cordiality, and with evidences of re- 
spect for his country, which leaves us no room to doubt 
the preservation in future of those amicable and liberal 
relations which have so long and so uninterruptedly ex- 
isted between the two countries. On the few subjects 
under discussion between us, an early and just decision 
is confidently anticipated. 

A correspondence has been opened with the govern- 
ment of Austria, for the establishment of diplomatic rela- 
tions, in conformity with the wishes of Congress, as in- 



S74 THE TP'o'E AMERICAN. 

dicatcd by an appropriation act of the session of 1837, 
and arrangements made for the purpose, which will be du y 
carried into effect. 

With Austria and Prussia, and with the states of the 
German empire, now composing with the latter the Com- 
mercial League, our political relations are of the most 
friendly character, while our commercial intercourse is gra- 
dually extending, with benefit to all who are engaged in it. 

Civil war yet rages in Spain, producing intense suffer- 
ing to its own people, and to other nations inconvenience 
and regret. Our citizens who have claims upon that 
country will be prejudiced for a time by the condition of 
its treasury, the inevitable consc(iuence of long-continued 
and exhausting iiiiernal wars. The last instalment of the 
interest of the debt due under the convention with the 
queen of Spain has not been paid ; and similar failures 
may be expected to hn|)j)en until a portion of the resour- 
ces of her kingdom can be devoted to the extinguishment 
of its foreign debt. 

Having received satisfactory evidence that discrimina- 
ting tonnage duties were charged upon vessels of the Uni- 
ted States in the ports of Portugal, a proclamation was 
issued on the llth day of October last, in compliance 
with the act of May 25th, 1832, declaring that fact, and 
the duties on foreign tonnage, which were levied upon 
Portuguese vessels in the United States, previously to the 
passage of that act, are accordingly revived. 

The act of .Tidy 4th, 1836, suspending the discrimina- 
ting duties upon the produce of Portugal imported into 
this country in Portuguese vessels, was pacsed, upon the 
application of that government, through its representa- 
tive here, under the belief that no similar discrimination 
existed in Portugal to the i)rcjudice of the United States 
I regret to state that such duties are now exacted in that 
country, upon the cargoes of American vessels ; and as 
the act referred to, vests no discretion in the executive, it 
is for Congress to determine upon the expediency of fur- 
ther legislation upon the subject. Against these discri- 
minations, afl'ecting the vessels of this country and their 
cargoes, seasonable remonstrance was made, and notice 
was given to the Portuguese government, that unless they 



VAN BUREN's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 275 

should be discontinued, tlic adoption of countervailing 
measures on the part of the United States would become 
necessary ; but tlie reply of that government received at 
the department of state through our charge d'affaires 
at Lisbon, in the month of September last, afforded no 
ground to hope for the abandonment of a system, so little 
in harmony witli the treatment shown to the vessels of 
Portugal and their cargoes, in the ports of this country, 
and so contrary to tlie expectations we had a right to 
entertain. 

With IFolhuid, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and Belgi- 
um, a friendly intercourse has been uninterruptedly main- 
tained. 

With the government of the Ottoman Porte, and its 
dependencies on the coast of the Mediterranean, peace 
and good-will are carefully cultivated, and h.ave been fos- 
tered by such good olliccs as the relative distance and the 
condition of those countries would permit. 

Our commerce with Greece is carried on under the 
laws of the two governments, reciprocally beneficial to 
the navigating interests of both ; and I have reason to 
look forward to the adoption of other measures which 
will be more extensively and permanently advantageous. 

Copies of the treaties concluded with the governments 
of Siam and Muscat are transmitted for the information 
of Coiigress, the ratifications having been received, and 
the treaties made public, since the close of the last annu- 
al session. Already have we reason to congratulate our- 
selves on the prospect of considerable commercial bene- 
fit ; and we have, besides, received from the Sultan of 
Muscat, prompt evidence of his desire to cultivate the 
most friendly feelings, by liberal acts towards one of our 
vessels, bestowed in a manner so striking as to require on 
our part a grateful acknowledgment. 

Our conuncrce with the island of Cuba and Porto Ri- 
co, still labors under heavy restriction, the continuance 
of which is a subject of regret. The only effect of an 
adherence to them will be to benefit the navigation of 
other countries, at the expense both of the United States 
and Spain. 

The independent nations of this continent have, ever 



276 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

since they emerged from the colonial state, experienced 
severe trials in their progress to the permanent establish- 
ment of liberal political institutions. Their unsettled 
condition not only interrupts their own advances to pros- 
perity, but has often seriously injured the other powers 
of the world. The claims of our citizens upon Peru, 
Chili, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, the governments 
formed out of the republics of Colombia and Mexico, 
are still pending, although many of them have been pre- 
sented for examinations more than twenty years. New 
Grenada, Venezuela, and Ecuador, have recently formed 
a convention for the purpose of ascertaining and adjust- 
ing the claims upon the republic of Colombia, from which 
it is earnestly hoped our citizens will, ere long, receive 
full compensation for the injuries originally inflicted upon 
them, and for the delay in affording it. 

An advantageous treaty of commerce has been con- 
cluded by the United States with the Peru-Bolivian Con- 
federation, which wants only the ratification of that go- 
vernment. The progress of a subsequent negotiation for 
the settlement of claims upon Peru, has been unfavora- 
bly affected by the war between that power and Chili, 
and the Argentine Republic ; and the same event is like- 
ly to produce delays in the settlement of our demands on 
those powers. 

The aggravating circumstances connected with our 
claims upon Mexico, and a variety of events touching 
the honor and integrity of our government, led my pre- 
decessor to make, at the second session of the last Con- 
gress, a special recommendation of the course to be pur- 
sued to obtain a speedy and final satisfaction of the inju- 
ries complained of by this government and by our citi- 
zens. He recommended a final demand of redress, with a 
contingent authority to the executive to make reprisals, if 
that demand should be made in vain. From the proceed- 
ings of Congress on that recommendation, it appeared 
that the opinion of both branches of the legislature coin- 
cided with that of the executive, that any mode of re- 
dress known to the law of nations might justifiably be used. 
It was obvious, too, that Congress believed, with the 
President, that another demand should be made, in order 



VAN BUREN's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 277 

to give undeniable and satisfactory proof of our desire to 
avoid extremities with a neighboring power ; but that 
there was an indisposition to vest a discretionary authori- 
ty in the executive to take redress, should it unfortunate- 
ly be either denied or unreasonably delayed by the Mexi- 
can government. 

So soon as the necessary documents were prepared, 
after entering upon the duties of my office, a special mes- 
senger was sent to Mexico, to make a final demand of re- 
dress, with the documents required by the provisions of 
our treaty. The demand was made on the 2'Hh of July 
last. The reply, which bears date the 29tli of the same 
month, contains assurances of a desire, on the part of 
that government, to give a prompt and explicit answer re- 
specting each of the complaints, but that the examination 
of them would necessarily be deliberate ; that in this ex- 
amination it would be guided by the principles of public 
law and the obligation of treaties; that nothing should be 
left undone that might lead to the most equitable adjust- 
ment of our demands; and that its determination, in re- 
spect to each case, should be communicated through the 
Mexican minister here. 

Since that time, an envoy extraordinary and minister 
plenipotentiary has been accredited to this government 
by that of the Mexican republic. He brought with him 
assurances of a sincere desire that the pending differences 
between the two governments should be terminated in a 
manner satisfactory to both. He was received with re- 
ciprocal assurances, and a hope was entertained that his 
mission would lead to a speedy, satisfactory, and final ad- 
justment of all existing subjects of complaint. A sin- 
cere believer in the wisdom of the pacific policy by which 
the United States have always been governed in their 
intercourse with foreign nations, it was my particular 
desire, from the proximity of the Mexican republic, and 
well-known occurrences on our frontier, to be instrument- 
al in obviating all existing difficulties with that govern- 
ment, and in restoring to the intercourse between the two 
republics, that liberal and friendly character by which 
they should always be distinguished. I regret, therefore, 
the more deeply, to have found in the recent communica- 
24 



278 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tions of that government, so little reason to hope that any 
efforts of mine for the accomplishment of those desirable 
objects would be successful. 

Although the larger number, and many of them ag- 
gravated cases of personal wrongs have been now for 
years before the Mexican government, and some of the 
causes of national complaint, and those of the most offen- 
sive character, admitted of innnediate, simple and satis- 
factory replies, it is only within a few days past that any 
specific communication in answer to our last demand, 
made five months ago, has been received from the Mexi- 
can minister. By the report of the secretary of state, 
herewith presented, and the accompanying documents, it 
will be seen, that for not one of our public complaints 
has satisfaction been given or offered ; that but one of 
the causes of personal wrong has been favorably consid- 
ered ; and that but four cases of both descriptions, out 
of all those formally presented, and earnestly pressed, 
have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican govern- 
ment. 

Not perceiving in what manner any of the powers giv- 
en to the executive alone, could be further usefully em- 
ployed in bringing this unfortunate controversy to a satis- 
factory termination, the subject was, by my predecessor, 
referred to Congress, as one calling for its interposition. 
In accordance with the clearly understood wishes of the 
legislature, another and formal demand for satisfaction 
has been made upon the Mexican government, with what 
success the documents now communicated will show. 
On a careful and deliberate examination of their con- 
tents, and considering the spirit manifested by the Mexi- 
can government, it has become my painful duty to return 
the subject, as it now stands, to Congress, to whom it 
belongs to decide upon the time, the mode, and the mea- 
sures of redress. Whatever may be your decision, it shall 
be faithfully executed, confident that it will be character- 
ized by that moderation and justice which will, I trust, un- 
der all circumstances, govern the councils of our country. 

The balance in the treasury on the first day of January, 
1837, was forty-five millions nine hundred and sixty-eight 
thousand live hundred and twenty-three dollars. The 



VAN BUREN's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 279 

receipts during the present year from all sources, inclu- 
ding the amount of treasury notes issued, are estimated 
at twenty-three millions four hundred and ninety-nine 
thousand nine hundred and eighty-one dollars, constitu- 
ting an aggregate of sixty-nine millions four hundred and 
sixty-eight thousand five hundred and four dollars. Of 
this amount, about thirty-five millions two hundred and 
eighty-one thousand three hundred and sixty-one dollars 
will have been expended, at the end of the year, on appro- 
priations made by Congress; and the residue, amounting 
to thirty-four millions one hundred and eighty-seven thou- 
sand one hundred and forty-three dollars, will be the 
nominal balance in the treasury on the first of January 
next. But of that sum, only one million eighty-five thou- 
sand four hundred and ninety-eight dollars is considered 
as immediately available for, and applicable to, public 
purposes. 

Those portions of it which will be for some time una- 
vailable, consist chiefly of sums deposited with the states, 
and due from the former deposit banks. The details 
upon this subject will be found in the annual report of 
the secretary of the treasury. The amount of treasury 
notes which it will be necessary to issue during the year 
on account of those funds being unavailable, will, it is 
supposed, not exceed four and a half millions. It seemed 
proper in the condition of the country, to have the esti- 
mates on all subjects made as low as practicable, without 
prejudice to any great public measures. The departments 
were, therefore, desired to prepare their estimates accord- 
ingly; and I am happy to find that they have been able 
to graduate them on so economical a scale. 

In the great and often unexpected fluctuations to 
which the revenue is subjected, it is not possible to com- 
pute the receipts beforehand with great certainty ; but 
should they not differ essentially from present anticipa- 
tions, and should the appropriations not much exceed the 
estimates, no difficulty seems likely to happen in defraying 
the current expenses with promptitude and fidelity. 

Notwithstanding the great embarrassments which have 
recently occurred in commercial affairs, and the liberal 
indulgence which, in consequence of those embarrass- 



280 THE TRUE AMEUICi^N. 

ments, has been extended to both the merchants and the 
banks, it is gratifying to be able to anticipate that the 
treasury notes, which have been issued during the present 
year will be redeemed, and that the resources of the trea- 
sury, without any resort to loans or increased taxes, will 
prove ample for defraying all charges imposed on it du- 
ring 1838. 

The report of the secretary of the treasury will afford 
you a more minute exposition of all matters connected 
with the administration of the finances during the current 
year ; a period which, for the amount of public moneys 
disbursed and deposited with the states, as well as the 
financial difiiculties encountered and overcome, has few 
parallels in our history. 

Your attention was, at the last session, invited to the 
necessity of additional legislative provisions in respect 
to the collection, safe-keeping, and transfer of the public 
money. No law having been then matured, and not un- 
derstanding the proceedings of Congress as intended to 
be final, it becomes my duty again to bring the subject to 
your notice. 

On that occasion, three modes of performing this 
branch of the public service were presented for conside- 
ration. These were, the creation of a national bank ; 
the revival, with modifications, of the deposit system esta- 
blished by the act of the 2-M June, 1830, permitting the 
use of the public moneys by the banks ; and the discon- 
tinuance of the use of such institutions for the purposes 
referred to, with suitable provisions for their accomplish- 
ment through the agency of public officers. Considering 
the opinions of both houses of Congress on the two first 
propositions as expressed in the negative, in which I entire- 
ly concur, it is unnecessary for me again to recur to them. 
In respect to the last, you have had an opportunity, since 
your adjournment, not only to test still further the expedi- 
ency of the measure, by the continued practical operation 
of such parts of it as are now in force, but also to discover 
— what should ever be sought for and regarded with the 
utmost deference — the opinions and wishes of the people. 

The national will is the supreme law of the republic, 
and on all subjects within the limits of its constitutional 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 281 

powers, should be faithfully obeyed by the public servant. 
Since the measure in question was submitted to your con- 
sideration, most of you have enjoyed the advantage of 
personal communication with your constituents. For one 
state only has an election been held for the federal go- 
vernment ; but the early day at which it took place, de- 
prives the measure under consideration of much of the 
support it might otherwise have derived from the result. 
Local elections for state officers have, however, been held 
in several of the states, at which the expediency of the 
plan proposed by the executive has been more or less dis- 
cussed. You will, I am confident, yield to their results 
the respect due to every expression of the public voice- 
Desiring, however, to arrive at truth and a just view of 
the subject in all its bearings, you will at the same time 
remember, that questions of far deeper and more imme- 
diate local interest than the fiscal plans of the national 
treasury were involved in those elections. 

Above all, we cannot overlook the striking fact, that 
there were, at the time, in those states, more than one 
hundred and sixty millions of bank capital, of which 
large portions were subject to actual forfeiture — other 
large portions upheld only by special and limited legisla- 
tive indulgences — and most of it, if not all, to a greater 
or less extent, dependent for a continuance of its corpo- 
rate existence upon the will of the state legislatures to be 
then chosen. Apprised of this circumstance, you will 
judge whether it is not most probable that the peculiar 
condition of that vast interest in these respects, the ex- 
tent to which it has been spread through all the ramifica- 
tions of society, its direct connection with the then pend- 
ing elections, and the feelings it was calculated to infuse 
into the canvass, have not exercised a far greater influ- 
ence over the result than any which could possibly have 
been produced by a conflict of opinion in respect to a 
question in the administration of the general government, 
more remote and far less important in its bearings upon 
that interest. 

I have found no reason to change my own opinion as to 
the expediency of adopting the system proposed, being per- 
fectly satisfied that there will be neither stability nor safe- 
24* 



282 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

ty, either in the fiscal affairs of the government, or in the 
pecuniary transactions of individuals and corporations, 
so long as a connection exists between them, wiiich, like 
the past, offers such strong inducements to make them 
the subjects of political agitation. Indeed, I am more 
than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free 
and unbiassed exercise of political opinion — the only sure 
foundation and safeguard of republican government — 
would be exposed by any further increase of ttie already 
overgrown influence of corporate authorities — I cannot, 
therefore, consistently with my views of duty, advise a 
renewal of a connection which circunibtances have dis- 
solved. 

The discontinuance of the use of state banks for fiscal 
purposes ought not to be regarded as a measure of hosti- 
lity towards these institutions. Banks properly esta- 
blished and conducted, are highly useful to the business 
of the country, and doubtless will continue to exist in 
the states so long as they conform to their laws, and are 
found to be safe and beneficial. How they should be 
created, what privileges they should enjoy, under what 
responsibilities they should act, and to what restrictions 
they should be subject, are questions which, as 1 observed 
on a previous occasion, belong to the states to decide. 
Upon their rights, or the exercise of them, the general 
government can have no motive to encroach. Its duty 
toward them is well performed, when it refrains from 
legislating for their special benefit, because such legisla- 
tion would violate the spirit of the constitution, and be 
unjust to other interests ; when it takes no steps to im- 
pair their usefulness, but so manages its own affairs as 
to make it the interest of those institutions to strengthen 
and improve their condition for the security and welfare 
of the community at large. They have no right to insist 
on a connection with the federal government, nor on the 
use of the public money for their own benefit. 

The object of the measure under consideration is, to 
avoid for the future a compulsory connection of this kind. 
It proposes to place the general government, in regard to 
the essential points of the collection, safe-keeping and 
transfer of the public money, in a situation which shall 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 283 

relieve it from all dependence on the will of irresponsible 
individuals or corporations ; to withdraw those moneys 
from the uses of private trade, and confine them to agents 
constitutionally selected and controlled by law; to ab- 
stain from improper interference with the industry of the 
people, and withhold inducements to improvident deal- 
ings on the part of individuals ; to give stability to the 
concerns of the treasury; to preserve the measures of the 
government from the unavoidable reproaches that flow 
from such a connection, and the banks themselves from 
the injurious effects of a supposed participation in the 
political conliicts of the day, from which they will other- 
wise find it difficult to escape. 

These are my views irpon this important subject; 
formed after careful reflection, and with no desire but to 
arrive at what is most likely to promote the public inte- 
rest. They are now, as they were before, submitted with 
an unfeigned deference for the opinions of others. It 
was hardly to be hoped that changes so important, on a 
subject so interesting, could be made without producing 
a serious diversity of opinion ; but so long as those con- 
flicting views are kept above the influence of individual 
or local interests ; so long as they pursue only the gene- 
ral good, and are discussed with moderation and candor, 
such diversity is a benefit, not an injury. If a majority 
of Congress see the public welfare in a different light ; 
and more especially if they should be satisfied that the 
measure proposed would not be acceptable to the people ; 
I shall look to their wisdom to substitute such as may be 
more conducive to the one, and more satisfactory to the 
other. In any event, they may confidently rely on my 
hearty co-operation to the fullest extent which my views 
of the constitution and my sense of duty will permit. 

It is obviously important to this branch of the public 
service, and to the business and quiet of the country, that 
the whole subject sliould in some way be settled aud regu- 
lated by law ; and, if possible, at your present session. 
Besides the plan above referred to, I am not aware that 
any one has been suggested, except that of keeping the 
public money in the state banks, in special deposit. This 
plan is, to some extent, in accordance with the practice 



284 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

of the government, and which, except, perhaps during the 
operation of the late deposit act, has always been allowed, 
even during the existence of a national bank, to make a 
temporary use of the state banks, in particular places, for 
the safe-keeping of portions of the revenue. 

This discretionary power might be continued, if Con- 
gress deem it desirable, whatever general system may 
be adopted. So long as the connection is voluntary, we 
need perhaps anticipate few of those difficulties, and little 
of that dependence on the banks, which must attend 
every such connection when compulsory in its nature, and 
when so arranged as to make the banks a fixed part of 
the machinery of government. It is undoubtedly in the 
power of Congress so to regulate and guard it as to pre- 
vent the public money from being applied to the use, or 
intermingled with the affairs, of individuals. Thus ar- 
ranged, although it would not give to the government 
that control over its own funds which I desire to secure 
to it by the plan I have proposed, it would, it must be 
admitted, in a great degree, accomplish one of the objects 
which has recommended that plan to my judgment — the 
separation of the fiscal concerns of the government from 
those of individuals or corporations. 

With these observations, I recommend the whole mat- 
ter to your dispassionate reflection ; confidently hoping 
that some conclusion may be reached by your delibera- 
tions, which, on the one hand, shall give stability to the 
fiscal operations of the government, and be consistent, 
on the other, with the genius of our institutions, and with 
the interests and wishes of the great mass of our con- 
stituents. 

It was my hope that nothing would occur to make ne- 
cessary, on this occasion, any allusion to the late national 
bank. There are circumstances, however, connected 
with the present state of its aftairs, that bear so directly 
on the character of the government and the welfare of 
the citizen, that I should not feel myself excused in ne- 
glecting to notice them. The charter which terminated 
its banking privileges on the fourth of March, 1836, 
continued its corporate powers two years more, for the 
sole purpose of closing its affairs, with authority " to 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 285 

use the corporate name, style and capacity, for the par- 
pose of suits, for a final settlement and liquidation of 
the affairs and acts of the corporation, and for the sale 
and disposition of their estate, real, personal and mixed, 
but for no other purpose or in any other manner what- 
soever." Just before the banking privileges ceased, its 
effects were transferred by the bank to a new state in- 
stitution, then recently incorporated, in trust, for the 
discharge of its debts and the settlement of its affairs. 

With this trustee, by authority of Congress, an ad- 
justment vyas subsequently made of the large interest 
which the government had in the stock of the institu- 
tion. The manner in whicli a trust unexpectedly created 
upon the act granting the charter, and involving such 
great public interests, has been executed, would, under 
any circumstance, be a fit subject of inquiry ; but much 
more does it deserve your attention when it embraces the 
redemption of obligations to which the authority and 
credit of the United States have given value. The two 
years allowed are now nearly at an end. It is well un- 
derstood that the trustee has not redeemed and cancelled 
the outstanding notes of the bank, but has re-issued, and 
is continually re-issuing, since the 3d of March, 1836, 
the notes which have been received by it to a vast amount. 

According to its own ofiicial statement, so late as the 
first of October last, nineteen months after the banking 
privileges given by the charter had expired, it had under 
its control uncancelled notes of the late bank of the United 
States to the amount of twenty-seven millions five hun- 
dred and sixty-one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six 
dollars, of which six millions one hundred and seventy- 
five thousand eight hundred and sixty-one dollars were 
in actual circulation, one million four hundred and sixty- 
eight thousand six hundred and twenty-seven dollars at 
state bank agencies, and three millions two thousand 
three hundred and ninety dollars in transitu : thus show- 
ing that upwards of ten millions and a half of the notes 
of the old bank were then still kept outstanding. 

The impropriety of this procedure is obvious; it being 
the duty of the trustee to cancel and not to put forth ihe 
notes of an institution, whose concerns it had undertaken 



286 THE TRUE AMERtCAN. 

to wind up. If the trustee has a right to re-issue these 
notes now. I can see no reason why he may not continue 
to do so after the expiration of the two years. As no 
one could have anticipated a course so extraordinary, the 
prohibitory clause of the charter above quoted was not 
accompanied by any penalty or other special provision 
for enforcing it; nor have we any general law for the 
prevention of similar acts in future. 

But it is not in this view of the subject alorte that your 
interposition is required. The United States, in settling 
with the trustee for their stock, have withdrawn their 
funds from their former direct liability to the creditors 
of the old bank, yet notes of the institution continue to 
be sent forth in its name, and apparently upon the au- 
thority of the United States. The transactions connected 
with the employment of the bills of the old bank are of vast 
extent ; and should they result unfortunately, the interests 
of individuals may be deeply compromised. Without un- 
dertaking to decide how far, or in what form, if any, the 
trustee could be made liable for notes which contain no 
obligation on his part; or the old bank, for such as are 
put in circulation after the expiration of its charter, and 
without its authority; or the government for indemnity 
in case of loss, the question still presses itself upon your 
consideration, whether it is consistent with the duty and 
good faith on the part of the government, to witness this 
proceeding without a single effort to arrest it. 

The report of the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office, which will be laid before you by the secretary of 
the treasury, will show how the affairs of that office 
have been conducted for the past year. The disposition 
of the public lands is one of the most important trusts 
confided to Congress. The practicability of retaining the 
title and control of such extensive domains in the general 
government, and at the same time admitting the territo- 
ries embracing them into the federal union, as co-equal 
with the original states, was seriously doubted by many 
of our wisest statesmen. All feared that they would 
become a source of discord, and many carried their ap- 
prehensions so far as to see in them the seeds of a future 
dissolution of the confederacy. But happily our expe-* 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 287 

rience has already been sufficient to quiet, in a great 
degree, all such apprehensions. The position, at one 
time assumed — that the admission of new states into the 
Union on the same footing with the original states, was 
incompatible with a right of soil in the United States, 
and operated as a surrender thereof, notwithstanding the 
terms of the compacts by which their admission was 
designed to be regulated — has been wisely abandoned. 

Whether in the new or the old states, all now agree 
that the right of soil to the public lands remains in the 
federal government, and that these lands constitute a com- 
mon property, to be disposed of for the common benefit 
of all the states, old and new. Acquiescence in this just 
principle by the people of the new states has naturally 
promoted a disposition to adopt the most liberal policy in 
the sale of the public lands. A policy which should be 
limited to the mere object of selling the lands for the 
greatest possible sum of money, without regard to higher 
considerations, finds but few advocates. On the contra- 
ry, it is generally conceded, that while the mode of dispo- 
sition adopted by the government, should always be a 
prudent one, yet its leading object ought to be the early 
settlement and cultivation of the lands sold ; and that it 
should discountenance, if it cannot prevent, the accu- 
mulation of large tracts in the same hands, which must 
necessarily retard the growth of the new states, or 
entail upon them a dependent territory and its attendant 
evils. 

A question embracing such important interests, and so 
well calculated to enlist the feelings of the people in 
every quarter of the Union, has very naturally given rise 
to numerous plans for the improvement of the existing 
system. The distinctive features of the policy that has 
hitherto prevailed, are, to dispose of the public lands at 
moderate prices, thus enabling a greater number to enter 
into competition for their purchase, and accomplishing a 
double object of promoting their rapid settlement by the 
purchasers, and at the same time increasing the receipts 
of the treasury ; to sell for cash, thereby preventing the 
disturbing influence of a large mass of private citizens 
indebted to the government which they have a voice in 



288 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

controlling; to bring them into market no faster than 
good lands are supposed to be wanted for improvements, 
thereby preventing the accumulation of large tracts in 
few hands ; and to apply the proceeds of the sales to the 
general purposes of the government ; thus diminishing 
the amount to be raised from the people of the states by 
taxation, and giving each state its portion of the benefits 
to be derived from this common fund in a manner the 
most quiet, and, at the same time, perhaps, the most equi- 
table that can be devised. 

These provisions, with occasional enactments in be- 
half of special interests deemed entitled to the favor of 
government, have, in their execution, produced results 
as beneficial upon the whole as could reasonably be ex- 
pected in a matter so vast, so complicated, and so exci- 
ting. Upwards of seventy millions of acres have been 
sold, the greater part of which is believed to have been 
purchased for actual settlement. The population of the 
new states and territories created out of the public do- 
main, increased between 1800 and 1830, from less than 
sixty thousand, to upwards of two millions three hundred 
thousand souls, constituting, at the latter period, about 
one fifth of the whole people of the United States. The 
increase since cannot be accurately known, but the whole 
may now be safely estimated at over three and a half 
millions of souls ; composing nine states, the representa- 
tives of which constitute above one third of the Senate, 
and over one sixth of the House of the Representatives 
of the United States. 

Thus has been formed a body of free and independent 
landholders, with a rapidity unequalled in the history of 
mankind ; and this great result has been produced with- 
out leaving any thing for future adjustment between the 
government and its citizens. The system under which 
so much has been accomplished carmot be intrinsically 
bad, and with occasional modifications, to correct abu- 
ses, and adapt it to changes of circumstances, may, I 
think, be safely trusted for the future. There is, in the 
manatement of such extensive interests, much virtue in 
stability ; and although great and obvious improvements 
should not be declined, changes should never be made 



VAN BUREN's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 1:^89 

without the fullest examination, and the clearest demon- 
stration of their practical utility. 

In the history of the past, we have an assurance that 
this safe rule of action will not be departed from in rela- 
tion to the public lands ; nor is it believed that any ne- 
cessity exists for interfering with the fundamental princi- 
ples of the system, or that the public mind, even in the 
new states, is desirous of any radical alterations. On the 
contrary, the general disposition appears to be, to make 
such modifications and additions only as will more ef- 
fectuilly carry out the original policy of filling our new 
states and territories with an industrious and independent 
population. 

The modification most perseveringly pressed upon Con- 
gress, which has occupied so much of its time ibr years 
past, and will probably do so for a long time to come, if 
not sooner satisfactorily adjusted, is a reduction in the 
cost of such portions of the pubiic lands as are ascer- 
tained to be unsaleable at the rate now established by law, 
and a graduation, according to their relative value, of the 
prices at which they may hereafter be sold. It is worthy 
of consideration whether justice may not be done to 
every interest in this matter, and a vexed question set at 
rest, perhaps forever, by a reasonable compromise of 
conflicting opinions. Hitherto, after being offered at 
j.ublic sale, lands have been disposed of at one uniform 
price, whatever difference there might be in their intrin- 
sic value. 

The leading considerations urged in favor of the mea- 
sure referred to, are, that in almost all the land districts, 
and particularly in those in vvhich the lands have been 
long surveyed and exposed to sale, there are still remain- 
ing numerous and large tracts of every gradation of value, 
from the government price downward ; that these lands 
will not be purchased at the government price, so long as 
better can be conveniently obtained for the same amount ; 
that there are large tracts which even the improvements 
of the adjacent lands will never raise to that price; and 
that the present uniform price, combined with their irre- 
gular value, operates to prevent a desirable compactness 
of settlement in the new states, and to retard the full de- 
25 



290 THE IKtE AJlEURAiN. 

velopment of that wise policy on which our land system 
is founded, to the injury not only of the several slates 
where the lands lie, but of the United States as a whole. 

The remedy proposed has been a reduction in prices 
according to the length of time the lands have been in 
the market, without reference to any other circumstances. 
The certainty that the efflux of time would not always in 
such cases, and perhaps not even generally, furnish a 
true criterion of value; and the probability that persons 
residing in the vicinity, as the period for the reduction of 
prices approached, would postpone purchases they would 
otherwise make, for the purpose of availing themselves 
of the lower price, with other considerations of a similar 
character, have hitherto been successfully urged to defeat 
the graduation upon time. 

May not all reasonable desires upon this subject be sa- 
tisfied without encountering any of these objections 1 All 
will concede the abstract principle, that the price of the 
public lands should be proportioned to their relative value, 
so far as that can be accomplished without departing from 
the rule heretofore observed, requiring fixed prices in 
cases of private entries. The difficulty of the subject 
seems to lie in the mode of ascertaining what that value 
is. Would not the safest plan be that which has been 
adopted by many of the states as to the basis of taxation 
— an actual valuation of lands and classification of them 
into different rates ? 

Would it not be practicable and expedient to cause 
the relative value of the public lands in the old districts, 
which have been for a certain length of time in market, 
to be appraised and classed into two or more rates below 
the present minimum price, by the officers now employed 
in this branch of the public service, or in any other mode 
deemed preferable, and to make those prices permanent, 
if upon the coming in of the report they shall prove sa- 
tisfactory to Congress ? Cannot all the objects of gradu- 
ation be accomplished in this way, and the objections 
which have hitherto been urged against it, avoided ? It 
would seem to me that such a step, with a restriction of 
the sales to limited quantities, and for actual improvement, 
would be free from all just exceptions. 



VAN buren's first an.vvai. mhssage. 291 

By the full exposition of the value of the lands thus 
furnished and extensively promulgated, persons living at 
a distance would be informed of their true condition, 
and enabled to enter into competition with those residing 
in the vicinity ; the means of acquiring an independent 
home would be brought within the reach of many who 
are unable to purchase at present prices ; the population 
of the new states would be more compact, and large 
tracts would be sold which would otherwise remain on 
hand ; not only would the land be brought within the 
means of a large number of purchasers, but many per- 
sons possessed of greater means would be content to set- 
tle on a larger quantity of the poorer lands, rather than 
emigrate farther west in pursuit of a smaller quantity of 
better lands. 

Such a measure would also seem to be more consistent 
with the policy of the existing laws — that of converting 
the public domain into cultivated farms owned by their 
occupants. That policy is not best promoted by sending 
emigration up the almost intermin?ble streams of the west, 
to occupy in groups the best spots of land, leaving im- 
mense wastes behind them, and enlarging the frontier be- 
yond the means of the government to afford it adequate 
protection ; but in encouraging it to occupy, with rea- 
sonable denseness, the territory over which it advances, 
and find its best defence in the compact front which it 
presents to the Indian tribes. Many of you will bring to 
the consideration of the subject the advantage of local 
knowledge and greater experience, and all will be desi- 
rous of making an early and final disposition of every dis- 
turbing question in regard to this important interest. If 
these suggestions shall in any degree contribute to the 
accomplishment of so important a result, it will afford me 
sincere satisfaction. 

In some sections of the country most of the public 
lands have been sold, and the registers and receivers have 
little to do. It is a subject worthy of inquiry whether, 
in many cases, two or more districts may not be consoli- 
dated, and the number of persons employed in this busi- 
ness considerably reduced. Indeed, the time will come, 
when it will be the true policy of the general government, 



Q92 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

as to some of the states, to transfer to them, for a reasona- 
ble equivalent, all the refuse and unsold lands, and to 
withdraw the machinery of the federal land offices alto- 
gether. All who take a comprehensive view of our fede- 
ral system, and believe that one of its greatest excellen- 
cies consists in interfering as little as possible with the 
internal concerns of the states, look forward with great 
interest to this result. 

A modification of the existing laws in respect to the 
prices of the public lands, might also have a favorable 
influence on the legislation of Congress, in relation to 
another branch of the subject. Many who have not the 
ability to buy at present prices, settle on those lands, 
with the hope of acquiring from their cultivation the 
means of purchasing under pre-emption laws, from time 
to time passed by Congress. For this encroachment on 
the rights of the United States, they excuse themselves 
under the plea of their own necessities ; the fact that they 
dispossess nobody, and only enter upon the waste domain ; 
that they give additional value to the public lands in their 
vicinity, and their intention ultimately to pay the govern- 
ment price. So much weight has from time to time been 
attached to these considerations, that Congress have passed 
laws giving actual settlers on the public lands a rignt of 
pre-emption to the tracts occupied by them, at the mini- 
mum price. 

These laws have in all instances been retrospective in 
their operations ; but in a few years after their passage, 
crowds of new settlers have been found on the public 
lands, for similar reasons, and under like expectations, 
who have been indulged with the same privilege. This 
course of legislation tends to impair public respect for the 
laws of the country. Either the laws to prevent intrusion 
upon the public lands should be executed, or, if that 
should be impracticable or uiexpedient, they should be 
modified or repealed. If the public lands are to be con- 
sidered as open to be occupied by any, they should, by 
law, be thrown open to all. 

That which is intended, in all instances, to be legal- 
ized, should at once be made legal, that those who are 
disposed to conform to the laws, may enjoy at least equal 



VAN BUREN's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 293 

privileges with those who are not. But it is not believed 
to be the disposition of Congress to open the public lands 
to occupancy without regular entries and payment of the 
government price, as such a course must tend to worse 
evils than the credit system, which it was found necessary 
to abolish. 

It would seem, therefore, to be the part of wisdom and 
sound policy to remove, as far as practicable, the causes 
which produce intrusions upon the public lands, and then 
take efficient steps to prevent them in future. Would 
any single measure be so effective in removing all plausi- 
ble grounds for these intrusions as the graduation of price 
already suggested ? A short period of industry and eco- 
nomy in any part of our country would enable the poor- 
est citizen to accumulate the means to buy him a home 
at the lowest prices, and leave him without apology for 
settling on lands not his own. If he did not, under such 
circumstances, he would enlist no sympathy in his favor ; 
and the laws would be readily executed without doing 
violence to public opinion. 

A large portion of our citizens have seated themselves 
on the public lands, without authority, since the passage 
of the last pre-emption law, and now ask the enactment 
of another, to enable them to retain the lands occu- 
pied, upon payment of the minimum government price. 
They ask that which has been repeatedly granted before. 
If the future may be judged of by the past, little harm can 
be done to the interests of the treasury by yielding to 
their request. Upon a critical examination, it is found 
that the lands sold at the public sales since the introduc- 
tion of cash payments in 1820, have produced, on an av- 
erage, the nett revenue of only six cents an acre more 
than the minimum government price. There is no rea- 
son to suppose that future sales will be more productive. 
The government, therefore, has no adequate pecuniary 
interest to induce it to drive those people from the lands 
they occupy, for the purpose of selling them to others. 

Entertaining these views, I recommend the passage of 

a pre-emption law for their benefit, in connection with 

the preparatory steps towards the graduation of the price 

of the public lands, and farther and more effectual pro- 

25* 



394 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

visions to prevent intrusions hereafter. Indulgence to 
those who have settled on these lands with expectations 
that past legislation would be made a rule for the future, 
and at the same time removing the most plausible ground 
on which intrusions are excused, and adopting more effi- 
cient means to prevent them hereafter, appears to me 
the most judicious disposition which can be made of this 
difficult subject. 

The limitations and restrictions to guard against abuses 
in the execution of the pre-emption law, will necessarily 
attract the attention of Congress ; but under no circum- 
stances is it considered expedient to authorize floating 
claims in any shape. They have been heretofore, and 
doubtless would be hereafter, most prolific sources of 
fraud and oppresson, and instead of operating to confer 
the favor of the government on industrious settlers, are 
often used only to minister to a spirit of cupidity at the 
expense of the most meritorious of that class. 

The accompanying report of the secretary of war will 
bring to your view the state of the army, and all the va- 
rious subjects confided to the superintendence of that 
officer. 

The principal part of the army has been concentrated 
in Florida, with a view and in the expectation of bring- 
ing the war in that territory to a speedy close. The ne- 
cessity of stripping the posts on the maritime and inland 
frontiers, of their entire garrisons, for the purpose of as- 
sembling in the field an army of less than four thousand 
men, would seem to indicate the necessity of increasing 
our regular forces ; and the superior efficiency as well 
as greatly diminished expense of that description of 
troops, recommend this measure as one of economy, as 
well as of expediency. I refer to the report for the rea- 
sons which have induced the secretary of war to urge 
the re-organization and enlargement of the staff of the 
army, and of the ordnance corps, in which I fully concur. 

It is not, however, compatible with the interest of the 
people to maintain, in time of peace, a regular force ad- 
equate to the defence of our extensive frontiers. In pe- 
riods of danger and alarm, we must rely principally upon 
a well-organized militia ; and some general arrangement 



VAN buren's first annual messac.e. 295 

that will render this description of force more efficient, 
has long been a subject of anxious solicitude. It was 
recommended to the first Congress by General Washing- 
ton, and has since been frequently brought to your 
notice, and recently its importance strongly urged by my 
immediate predecessor. 

The provision in the constitution that renders it ne- 
cessary to adopt a uniform system of organization for 
the militia throughout the United States, presents an in- 
surmountable obstacle to an efficient arrangement by the 
classification heretofore proposed, and I invite your atten- 
tion to the plan which will be submitted by the secretary 
of war, for the organization of the volunteer corps, and 
the instruction of militia officers, as more simple and 
practicable, if not equally advantageous, as a general ar- 
rangement of the whole militia of the United States. 

A moderate increase of the corps both of military and 
topographical engineers, has been more than once recom- 
mended by my predecessor, and my conviction of the pro- 
priety, not to say necessity of the measure, in order to 
enable them to perform the various and important duties 
imposed upon them, induces me to repeat the recommen- 
dation. 

The Military Academy continues to answer all the pur- 
poses of its establishment, and not only furnishes well- 
educated officers of the army, but serves to diffiise through- 
out the mass of our citizens, individuals possessed of mi- 
litary knowledge, and the scientific attainments of civil 
and military engineering. At present, the cadet is bound, 
with the consent of his parents or guardians, to remain 
in service five years from the period of his enlistment, 
unless sooner discharged, thus exacting only one year's 
service in the army after his education is completed. 
This does not appear to me sufficient. Government ought 
to command for a longer period the services of those who 
are educated at the public expense ; and I recommend 
that the time of enlistment be extended to seven years, 
and the terms of the engagement strictly enforced. 

The creation of a national foundry for cannon, to be 
common to the service of the army and navy of the Uni- 
ted States, has been heretofore recommended, and ap- 



296 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

pears to be required in order to place our ordnance on 
an equal footing with that of other countries, and to ena- 
ble that branch of the service to control the prices of 
those articles, and graduate the supplies to the wants of 
the government, as well as to regulate their quality and 
insure their uniformity. 

The same reasons induce me to recommend the erec- 
tion of a manufactory of gunpowder, to be under the di- 
rection of the ordnance office. The establishment of a 
manufactory of small arms west of the Alleghany moun- 
tains, upon the plan proposed by the secretary of war, 
will contribute to extend throughout that country the 
improvements which exist in establishments of a similar 
description in the Atlantic states, and tend to a much 
more economical distribution of the armament required in 
the western portion of our Union. 

The system of removing the Indians west of the Mis- 
sissippi, commenced by Mr. Jefferson, in 1804, has been 
steadily persevered in by every succeeding President, and 
may be considered the settled policy of the country. Un- 
connected at first with any well-defined system for their 
improvement, the inducements held out to the Indians 
were confined to the greater abundance of game to be 
found in the west ; but when the beneficial effects of their 
removal were made apparent, a more philanthropic and 
enlightened policy was adopted, in purchasing their lands 
east of the Mississippi. Liberal prices were given, and 
provisions inserted in all the treaties with them for the 
applic Xion of the funds they received in exchange, to such 
purposes as were best calculated to promote their present 
welfare, and advance their future civilization. These 
measures have been attended thus far with the happiest 
results. 

It will be seen, by referring to the report of the com- 
missioner of Indian affairs, that the most sanguine ex- 
pectations of the friends and promoters of this system 
have been realized. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and 
other triies that first emigrated beyond the Mississippi, 
have, for the most part, abandoned the hunter state, and 
become cultivators of the soil. The improvement of 
their condition has been rapid, and it is believed that 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 297 

they are now fitted to enjoy the advantages of a simple 
form of government, which has been submitted to them 
and received their sanction; and I cannot too strongly 
urge this subject upon the attention of Congress. 

Stipulations have been made with all the Indian tribes 
to remove them beyond the Mississippi, except with the 
band of the Wyandotts, the Six Nations, in New York, 
the Menomonees, Mandans, and Stockbridges, in Wis- 
consin, and Miamies, in Indiana. With all but the 
Menomonees, it is expected that arrangements for their 
emigration will be completed the present year. The 
resistance which has been opposed to their removal by 
some tribes, even after treaties had been made with them 
to that effect, has arisen from various causes, operating 
differently on each of them. 

In most instances they have been instigated to resist- 
ance by persons to whom the trade with them and the 
acquisition of their annuities were important ; and in 
some by the personal influence of interested chiefs. 
These obstacles must be overcome ; for the government 
cannot relinquish the execution of this policy with- 
out sacrificing important interests, and abandoning the 
tribes remaining east of the Mississippi to certain de- 
struction. 

The decrease in numbers of the tribes within the limits 
of the states and territories has been most rapid. If they 
be removed, they can be protected from those associa- 
tions and evil practices which exert so pernicious and 
destructive an influence over their destinies. They can 
be induced to labor, and to acquire property, and its 
acquisition will inspire them with a feeling of indepen- 
dence. Their minds can be cultivated, and they can be 
taught the value of salutary and uniform laws, and be 
made sensible of the blessings of free government, and 
capable of enjoying its advantages. 

In the possession of property, knowledge, and a good 
government, free to give what direction they please to 
their labor, and sharers in the legislation by which their 
persons and the profits of their industry are to be pro- 
tected and secured, they will have an ever present con- 
viction of the importance of union, of peace among 



298 THE TRllK AMERICAN. 

themselves, and of the preservation of amicable relations 
with us. 

The interests of the United States would also be 
greatly promoted by freeing the relations between the 
general and state governments, from what has proved a 
most embarrassing incumbrance, by a satisfactory adjust- 
ment of conflicting titles to lands, caused by the occu- 
pation of the Indians, and by causing the resources of 
the whole country to be developed by the power of the 
state and general governments, and improved by the 
enterprise of a white population. 

Intimately connected with this subject is the obligation 
of the government to fulfil its treaty stipulations, and to 
protect the Indians thus assembled " at their new resi- 
dence from all interruptions and disturbances from any 
other tribes or nations of Indians, or from any other 
person or persons whatsoever," and the equally solemn 
ob]ig:ition to guard from Indian hostilities its own border 
settlements stretching along a line of more than one 
thousand miles. To enable the government to redeem 
their pledge to the Indians, and to afford adequate pro- 
tection to its own citizens, will require the continual 
presence of a considerable regular force on the frontiers, 
and the establishment of a chain of permanent posts. 
Examinations of the country are now making, with a 
view to decide on the most suitable points for the erection 
of fortresses and other works of defence, the results of 
which will be presented to you by the secretary of war 
at an early day, together with a plan for the effectual pro- 
tection of friendly Indians, and the permanent defence 
of the frontier states. 

By the report of the secretary of the navy, herewith 
communicated, it appears that unremitted exertions have 
been made at the different navy-yards, to carry into effect 
all authorized measures for the extension and employ- 
ment of our naval force. The launching and prepa- 
ration of the ship of the line Pennsylvania, and the 
complete repairs of the ships of the line Ohio, Delaware, 
and Columbus, may be noticed, as forming a respectable 
addition to this important arm of our national defence. 
Our commerce and navigation have received increased 



VAN BUREn's first ANNUAL MESSAGE. 299 

aid and protection during the present year. Our squad- 
rons in the Pacific and on the Brazilian station have 
been much increased, and that in the Mediterranean, 
although small, is adequate to the present wants of our 
commerce in that sea. Additions have been made to 
our squadron on the West India station, where the large 
force under Commodore Dallas has been most actively 
and efficiently employed in protecting our commerce, in 
preventing the importation of slaves, and in co-operating 
with the officers of the army in carrying on the war in 
Florida. 

The satisfactory condition of our naval force abroad, 
leaves at our disposal the means of conveniently provid- 
ing for a home squadron, for the protection of commerce 
upon our extensive coast. The amount of appropriations 
required for such a squadron will be found in the general 
estimates for the naval service, for the year 1838. 

The naval officers engaged upon our coast survey, 
have rendered important service to our navigation. The 
discovery of a new channel into the harbor of New 
York, through which our largest ships may pass without 
danger, must affiDrd important commercial advantages to 
that harbor, and add greatly to its value as a naval station. 
The accurate survey of Georges' shoals, off the coast 
of Massachusetts, lately completed, will render compara- 
tively safe, a navigation hitherto considered dangerous. 

Considerable additions have been made to the number 
of captains, commanders, lieutenants, surgeons and as- 
sistant surgeons in the navy. These additions were 
rendered necessary, by the increased nutnber of vessels 
put in commission, to answer the exigencies of our grow- 
ing commerce. 

Your attention is respectfully invited to the various 
suggestions of the secretary, for the improvement of 
the naval service. 

The report of the postmaster-general exhibits the pro- 
gress and condition of the mail service. The opera- 
tions of the post-office department, constitutes one of 
the most active elements of our national prosperity, and 
it is gratifying to observe with what vigor they are con- 
ducted. The mail routes of the United States cover an 



300 THE tnUE AMERICAN. 

extent of about one hundred and forty-two thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-seven miles, having been in- 
creased about thirty-seven thousand one hundred and 
three miles, within the last two years. 

The annual mail transportation on these routes is 
about 36,228,962 miles, having been increased about 
10,359,476 miles within the same period. The number 
of post-offices has also been increased from 10,770, to 
12,099, very few of which receive the mails less than 
once a week, and a large portion of them daily. Con- 
tractors and post-masters in general are represented as 
attending to their duties with most commendable zeal 
and fidelity. 

The revenue of the department within the year end- 
ing on the 30th of June last, was $4,137,C66 59 ; and 
its liabilities accruing within the same time, were 
$3,380,847 75. The increase of revenue over that of 
the preceding year, was $708,166 41. 

For many interesting details, I refer you to the report 
of the postmaster-general, with the accompanying paper. 
Your particular attention is invited to the necessity of 
providing a more safe and convenient building for the 
accommodation of the department. 

I lay before Congress copies of reports, submitted in 
pursuance of a call made by me upon the heads of 
departments, for such suggestions as their experience 
might enable them to make, as to whal further legislative 
provisions may be advantageously adopted to secure the 
faithful application of public money to the objects for 
which they are appropriated ; to prevent their misappli- 
cation or embezzlement by those intrusted with the 
expenditure of them ; and generally to increase the 
security of the government against losses in their dis- 
bursement. It is needless to dilate on the importance 
of providing such new safeguards as are within the 
power of legislation to promote these ends ; and I have 
little to add to the recommendations submitted in the 
accompanying papers. 

By law, the terms of service of our most important 
collecting and disbursing officers in the civil departments, 
are limited to four years, and when re-?.ppointed, their 



VAN BUREN's first ANNUAL MESSAGS. 301 

bonds are required to be renewed. The safety of the 
public is much increased by tliis feature of the law, and 
there can be no doubt that its application to all officers 
intrusted with the collection or disbursement of the pub- 
lic money, whatever may be the tenure of their offices, 
would be equally beneficial. I therefore recommend, in 
addition to such of the suggestions presented by the heads 
of department as you may think useful, a general provi- 
sion that all officers of the army or navy, or in the civil 
department, intrusted with the receipt or payment of the 
public money, and whose term of service is either un- 
limited or for a longer time than four years, be required 
to give bonds, with good and sufficient securities, at the 
expiration of every such period. 

A change in the period of terminating the fiscal year, 
from the first of October to the first of April, has been 
frequently recommended, and appears to be desirable. 

The distressing casualities in steamboats, which have 
so frequently happened, during the year, seem to evince 
the necessity of attempting to prevent them by means of 
severe provisions connected with their custom-house 
papers. This subject was submitted to the attention 
of Congress by the secretary of the treasury, in his last 
annual report, and will be again noticed at the present 
session, with additional details. It will doubtless receive 
that early and careful consideration which its pressing 
importance appears to require. 

Your attention has heretofore been frequently called 
to the affairs of the District of Columbia, and I should 
not again ask it, did not their entire dependence on Con- 
gress give them a constant claim upon its notice. Sep- 
arated by the constitution from the rest of the Union, 
limited in extent, and aided by no legislature of its own, 
it would seem to be a spot where a wise and uniform sys- 
tem of local government might have been easily adopted. 

This district however, unfortunately, has been left to 
linger behind the rest of the Union ; its codes, civil and 
criminal, are not only very defective, but full of obsolete 
or inconvenient provisions ; being formed of portions of 
two states, discrepancies in the laws prevail in different 
parts of the territory, small as it is ; and although it wa^ 
26 



303 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

selected as the seat of the general government, the site 
of its public edifices, the depository of its archives, and 
the residence of officers intrusted with large amounts of 
public property, and the management of public business, 
yet it has never been subjected to, or received, that spe- 
cial and comprehensive legislation which these circum- 
stances peculiarly demand. 

I am well aware of the various subjects of greater 
magnitude and immediate interest, that press themselves 
on the consideration of Congress ; but I believe there is 
no one that appeals more directly to its justice, than a 
liberal and even generous attention to the interests of the 
District of Columbia, and a thorough and careful revi- 
sion of its local government. 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, 

SEPTEMBER 17, 1796. 

Friends and Felloio-Citizens : 

The period for a new election of a citizen to adminis- 
ter the executive govevument of the United States being 
not far distant, and the time actucilly arrived when your 
thoughts must be employed in designating the person who 
is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to 
me proper, especially as it n)ay conduce to a more dis- 
tinct expression of the public voice that I should now 
apprize you of the resolution I have formed, to decline 
being considered among the number of those out of whom 
the choice is to be made. 

I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be 
assured, that this resolution has not been taken without a 
strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the 
relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; and 
that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence 
in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no di- 
minution of zeal for your future interest; no deficiency 
of grateful respect for your past kindness ; but am sup- 



Washington's farewell address. 303 

ported by a full conviction that the step is compatible 
with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the 
office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have 
been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of 
duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your 
desire. I constantly hoped tiiat it would have been much 
earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I 
was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retire- 
ment from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The 
strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last 
election, had even led to the preparation of an address to 
declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the then per- 
plexed and critical posture of aftairs with foreign nations, 
and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my con- 
fidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that 
the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, 
no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible 
with the sentiment of duty or propriety ; and am per- 
suaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my ser- 
vices, that in the present circumstances of our country you 
will not disapprove of my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the ar- 
duous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In 
the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, 
with good intentions, contributed towards the organiza- 
tion and administration of the government the best exer- 
tions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not 
unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my quali- 
fications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more 
in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to dif- 
fidence of myself; and, every day the increasing weight 
of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade 
of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. 
Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar 
value to my services, they were temporary, I have the 
consolation to believe, that while choice and prudence 
invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not 
forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is to termi- 
nate the career of my political life, my feelings do not 



804 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that 
debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for 
the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more for 
the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me ; 
and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of mani- 
festing my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and 
persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. 
If benefits have resulted to our country from these ser- 
vices, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as 
instructive example in our annals, that under circum- 
stances in which the passions, agitated in ei'ery direction, 
were liable to mislead — amidst appearances sometimes 
dubious — vicissitudes of fortunes often discouraging — in 
situations in which not unfrequently want of success has 
countenanced the spirit of criticism — the constancy of 
your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a 
guarantee of the plans, by which they were effected. Pro- 
foundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me 
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing wishes, 
that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of 
its beneficence — that your union and brotherly affection 
may be perpetual — that the free constitution which is the 
work of your hands may be sacredly maintained — that its 
administration in every department may be stamped with 
wisdom and virtue — that, in fine, the happiness of the 
people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may 
be made complete, by so careful a preservation, and so 
prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the 
glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, 
and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for 
your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the 
apprehension of danger, naturd to that solicitude, urge 
me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your so- 
lemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent 
review, some sentiments, which are the result of much 
reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which 
appear to me all-important to the permanency of your fe- 
licity as a people. These will be offered to you with the 
more freedom, as you can only see in them the disin- 
terested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly 



Washington's farewell address, 305 

have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I 
forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent recep- 
tion of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar 
occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every liga- 
ment of our hearts, no recommendation of mine is neces- 
sary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government, which constitutes you one 
people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is 
a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence ; 
the support of your tranquillity at home ; your peace 
abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ; of that very 
liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to 
foresee, that from different causes and from different 
quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices em- 
ployed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this 
truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against 
which the batteries of internal and external enemies will 
be most constantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidiously) directed ; it is of infinite moment, that 
you should properly estimate the immense value of your 
national union to your collective and individual happi- 
ness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and 
immoveable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to 
think and to speak of it as a palladium of your political 
safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with 
jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned ; 
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every 
attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the 
rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link toge- 
ther the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and 
interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common 
country, that country has a right to concentrate your af- 
fections. The name of American, which belongs to you 
in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride 
of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from 
local discriminations. With slight shades of difference 
you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political 
principle. You have, in a common cause, fought and 
26* 



306 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

triumphed together ; the independence and liberty you 
possess, are the work of joint councils and joint efforts 
' — of common dangers, sufferings, and success. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they ad- 
dress themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed 
by those which apply more immediately to your interest. 
Here every portion of our country finds the most com- 
manding motives for carefully guarding and preserving 
the union of the whole. 

The north, in an unrestrained intercourse with the 
south, protected by the equal laws of a conunon govern- 
ment, finds in the productions of the latter, great addi- 
tional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise, 
and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The 
south, in the same intercourse, benefitting by the same 
agency of the north, sees its agriculture grow and its 
commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels 
the seamen of the north, it finds its particular navigation 
invigorated — and while it contributes in different ways to 
nourish and increase the general mass of the national na- 
vigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime 
strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. "Yheeast, 
in like intercourse with the uie^t, already finds in the pro- 
gressive improvement of interior communications by land 
and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for 
the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manu- 
factures at home. The uust derives from the east sup- 
plies requisite to its growth and comfort — and what is 
perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity 
owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its 
own productions, to the weight, influence, and the future 
maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, di- 
rected by an indissoluble community of interest as one 
nation. Any other tenure by which the icest can hold 
this essential advantage, whether derived from its own 
separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural con- 
nection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically 
precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an 
immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts 
combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means 



Washington's farewell address. 307 

and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, propor- 
tionably greater security from external danger, a less 
frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations ; 
and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from 
union an exemption from those broils and wars between 
themselves, which so frequently aliiict neighboring coun- 
tries, not tied together by the same government, which 
their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce ; 
bu-t which opposite foreign alliances, attachnieuts, and 
intrigues, would stimulate and embitter. Hence, like- 
wise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments, which under any form of govern- 
ment are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be 
regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. 
In this sense it is, that your union ought to be considered 
as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the 
one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to 
every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the con- 
tinuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic 
desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government 
can embrace so large a sphere ? Let experience solve it. 
To listen to mere speculation in such a case were crimi- 
nal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organiza- 
tion of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of govern- 
ments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy 
issue of the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full 
experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to 
union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience 
shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who 
in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our 
union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any 
ground should have been furnished for characterizing 
parties, by geographical discriminations — Nort!.ern and 
Southern; Atlantic and Western; whence designing 
men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real 
difference of local interests and views. One of the expe- 
dients of party to acquire influence within particular 
districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other 



308 THE TRUE AMERICAN 

districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against 
the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from these 
misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien to each 
other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal 
affection. The inhabitants of our western country have 
lately had a useful lesson on this head. They have seen 
in the negotiation by the executive, and in the unanimous 
ratification by the senate of the treaty with Spain, and in 
the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the 
United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the 
suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the 
general government, and in the Atlantic states, unfriendly 
to their interests in regard to the Mississippi. They 
have been wilncsses to the formation of two treaties, that 
with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to 
them every thing tliey could desire, in respect to our for- 
eign relations, ioiwird confirming their prosperity. Will 
it not be their w isdom to rely for the preservation of these 
advantages on the union by which they were procured ? 
Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such 
there are, who would sever them from their brethren, and 
connect them with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a 
government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, 
however strict between the parts, can be an adequate 
substitute ; they must inevitably experience the infrac- 
tions and interruptions which alliances in all times have 
experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you 
have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of 
a constitution of government better calculated than your 
former for an intimate union, and for the ethcacious 
management of your common concern. This govern- 
ment, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and 
unawed ; adopted upon full investigation and mature 
deliberation ; completely free in its principles ; in the 
distribution of its powers uniting security with energy, 
and containing within itself provision for its own amend- 
ment, has a just claim to your confidence and your 
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its 
laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined 
by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis qF 



WASHINGTON S FAREWELL ADDKES3. 

our political system is the right of the people to make 
and to alter their constitutions of government. But the 
constitution which at any time exists, until changed by 
an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sa- 
credly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power 
and the right of the people to establish government, pre- 
supposes the duty of every individual to obey the estab- 
lished government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the Inws, all 
combinations and associations, under whatever plausible 
character, with the real design to direct, control, coun- 
teract, or awe the regular deliberations and action of the 
constituted authorities, are destructive of this funda- 
mental principle, and of fatal tendency- They serve to 
organize faction ; to give it an artificial and extraordinary 
force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the 
nation, the will of party, often a small, but artful and en- 
terprising minority of the community ; and according to 
the alternate triumphs of difierent parties, to make the 
public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted 
and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the 
organ of consistent and wholesome piaiis, digested by 
common counsels, and modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above 
description may now and then answer popular ends, they 
are likely, in the course of time and things, to become 
potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and un- 
principled men will be enabled to subvert the power of 
the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of 
government ; destroying afterwards the very engines which 
have lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your government, and the 
permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite 
not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppo- 
sition to its acknowledged authority, but also that you 
resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its princi- 
ples, however specious the pretext. One method of 
assault may be to effect in the forms of the constitution 
alterations which will impair the energy of the system, 
and thus to undermine what cannot be directly over- 
thrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, 



810 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to 
fix the true character of governments, as of other human 
institutions ; that experience is the surest standard by 
which to test the real tendency of the existing constitu- 
tions of a country ; that facility in changes, upon the 
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to per- 
petual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and 
opinion ; and remember especially, that from the efficient 
management of your common interests, in a country so 
extensive as ours, a crovernment of as much vicjor as ia 
consistent with the perfect security of liberty, as indis- 
pensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, 
with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest 
guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where 
the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises 
of faction, to confine each member of society within the 
limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the 
secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person 
and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties 
in the state, with particular reference to the founding of 
them upon geographical discriminations. Let me nowr 
take a more comprehensive view, and warn you, in the 
most solemn manner, against the baneful effects of the 
spirit of party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our na- 
ture, having its root in the strongest passions of the humau 
mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, 
more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in those 
of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, 
and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, 
sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party 
dissention, which in different ages and countries has per- 
petrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful 
despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and 
permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which 
result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek secu- 
rity and repose in the absolute power of an individual ; 
and, sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, 
more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns 



Washington's farewell address. 311 

this disposition to the purposes of his own eievation on 
the ruins of the public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, 
(which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) 
the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party 
are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise 
people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils, and 
enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the com- 
munity with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms ; kin- 
dles the animosity of one part against another ; foments 
occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door to 
foreign inlluence and corruption, which finds a facilitated 
access to the government itself, through the channels of 
party passion. Thus the policy and will of one country 
are subjected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are 
useful checks upon the administration of the government, 
and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within 
certain limits, is probably true ; and in governments of a 
monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, 
if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those 
of popular character, in governments purely elective, it 
is a spirit not to be encouraged. From the natural ten- 
dency, it is certain there will always be enough of that 
spirit for every salutary purpose ; and there being constant 
danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public 
opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be 
quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its 
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should 
consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, 
in a free country, should inspire caution in those intrust- 
ed with its administration, to confine themselves within 
their respective constitutional spheres ; avoiding, in the 
exercise of the powers of one department, to encroach 
upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to con- 
solidate the powers of all the departments in one, and 
thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real 
despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and 
proneness to abuse it, which predominate in the human 



012 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this posi- 
tion. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise 
of political power, by dividing and distributing into diP- 
farerit depositories, and constituting each the guardian of 
the public weal against invasions of the other, has been 
evinced by experiments, ancient and modern ; some of 
them in our country, and under our own eyes. To pre- 
serve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, 
in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modifica- 
tion of the constitutional powers be, in any particular, 
wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way 
in which the constitution designates. But let there be no 
change by usui-pation ; for though this, in one instance, 
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary wea- 
pon by which free governments are destroyed. The pre- 
cedent must always greatly overbalance, in permanent 
evil, any partial or transient benefit which the use can at 
any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to politi- 
cal prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable 
supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of 
patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pil- 
lars of human happiness — these firmest props of the duties 
of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with 
the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A 
volume could not trace all their connection with private 
and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense 
of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the 
instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And 
let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality 
can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be 
conceded to the influerrce of refined education on minds 
of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid 
us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principles. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a ne- 
cessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed 
extends with more or less force to every species of free 
government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look 
with inditference upon attempts to shake the foundation 
of the fabric ? 



Washington's farewell address. 313 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, 
institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In 
proportion as the structure of a government gives force 
to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should 
be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, 
cherish public credit. One method of preserving it, is 
to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of 
expense by cultivating peace, but remembering, also, that 
timely disbursements to prepare for danger, frequently 
prevent much greater disbursements to repel it ; avoiding 
likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning 
occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time 
of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars 
have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon pos- 
terity the burdens which we ourselves ought to bear. The 
execution of these maxims belongs to your representa- 
tives ; but it is necessary that public opinion should co- 
operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their 
duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in 
mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be 
revenue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that 
no taxes can be devised which are not more or less incon- 
venient and unpleasant ; that the intrinsic embarrassment, 
inseparable from the selection of the proper objects, 
(which is always a choice of difficulties,) ought to be a 
decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct 
of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acqui- 
escence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the 
public exigencies may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations ; 
cultivate peace and harmony with all ; religion and mo- 
rality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy 
does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, 
enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to 
give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example 
of a people always guided by an exalted justice and be- 
nevolence. Who can doubt but that in the course of 
time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly 
repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by 
a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has 
27 



314 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its 
virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by 
every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! 
it is rendered impossible by its vices ! 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies 
against particular nations, and passionate attachment for 
others, should be excluded; and that in the place of 
them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be 
cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another 
an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some 
degree, a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its 
affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray 
from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation 
against another, disposes each more readily to offer insult 
and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and 
to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling 
occasions of dispute occur. 

Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill will and 
resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, 
contrary to the best calculations of policy. The govern- 
ment sometimes participates in the national propensity, 
and adopts through passion what reason would reject ; 
at other times it makes the animosity of the nation sub- 
servient to the projects of hostility, instigated by pride, 
ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. 
The peace often, sometimes, perhaps, the liberty of na- 
tions has been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for 
another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the 
favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary 
common interest in cases where no real common interest 
exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, 
betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and 
the wars of the latter, without adequate inducements or 
justification. It leads, also, to concessions to the favorite 
nation of privileges denied to others, wliich are apt 
doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by 
unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been 
retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will ?.vA u dispo- 



Washington's farewell address. 315 

sition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privi- 
leges are withheld ; and it gives to ambitious, corrupt, or 
deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite 
nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their 
own country without odium, sometimes even with popu- 
larity ; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense 
of obligation to a commendable deference for public 
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base 
or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infat- 
uation. 

As avenues to foreign influence, in innumerable ways, 
such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly 
enlightened and independent patriot. How many oppor- 
tunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, 
to practise the art of seduction, to mislead public opinion, 
to influence or awe the public councils ! Such an at- 
tachment of a small or weak, towards a great and power- 
ful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the 
latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence 
(I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy 
of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since 
history and experience prove that foreign influence is one 
of the most baneful foes of republican government. But 
that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it be- 
comes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, 
instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for 
one foreign nation, and excessive dislike for another, 
cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one 
side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influ- 
ence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the 
intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected 
and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause 
and confidence of the people to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign 
nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 
with them as little political connection as possible. So 
far as we have already formed engagements, let them be 
fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have 
none, or a very remote relation. Hence, she must be 
engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which 



316 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, there- 
fore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by 
artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitude of her politics, 
or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friend- 
ships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables 
us to pursue a different course. If we remain one peo- 
ple, under an efficient government, the period is not far 
off when we may defy material injury from external 
annoyance ; when we may take such an attitude as will 
cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon, to 
be scrupulously respected ; when belligerent nations, 
under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, 
will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation ; when 
we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by 
justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? 
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, 
by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of 
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils 
of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or 
caprice ? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alli- 
ances with any portion of the foreign world ; so far I mean, 
as we are now at liberty to do it ; for let me not be un- 
derstood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing 
engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to 
public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the 
best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it 
is unnecessary, and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we 
may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary 
emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, 
are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. 
But even our commercial policy should hold an equal 
and impartial hand ; neither seeking nor granting exclu- 
sive favors or preferences ; consulting the natural course 
of things ; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the 



Washington's farewkll address. 317 

stream of commerce, but forcing nothing ; establishing 
with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable 
course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to 
enable the government to support tlidvn, conventional 
rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances 
and natural opinion will permit, but temporary, and 
liable to be, from time to time, abandoned or varied, as 
experience and circumstances shall dictate ; constantly 
keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for 
disinterested favors from another ; that it must pay with 
a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept 
under that character ; that by such acceptance, it may 
place itself in the condition of having given equivalents 
for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with 
ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater 
error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from 
nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience 
must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of 
an old affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make 
the strong and lasting impression I could wish — that they 
will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent 
our nation from running the course which has hitherto 
marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter 
myself that they may be productive of some partial bene- 
fit, some occasional good; that they may now and then 
recur to moderate the fury of party spirit ; to warn against 
the mischiefs of foreign intrigue ; to guard against the 
impostures of pretended patriotism ; this hope will be a 
full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by 
which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have 
been guided by the principles which have been delineated, 
the public records and other evidences of my conduct 
must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the 
assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least 
believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my 

proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to 

my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by 

that of vour representatives in both houses of Congress, 

27* 



318 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, 
uninfluenced by any attempts todeter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aids of the best 
lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our coun- 
try, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right 
to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a 
neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far 
as should depend upon me, to maintain it with mode- 
ration, perseverance and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold 
this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to de- 
tail. I will only observe, that according to my under- 
standing of the matter, that right, so far from being 
denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtu- 
ally admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, 
without any thing more, from the obligation which justice 
and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which 
it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of 
peace and amity towards other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that con- 
duct, will best be referred to your own reflections and 
experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to 
endeavor to gain time to our country, to settle and mature 
its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without inter- 
ruption, to that degree of strength and constancy, which 
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command 
of its own fortune. 

Though in reviewing the incidents of my adminis- 
tration, I am unconscious of intentional error ; I am 
nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it 
probable that I may have committed many errors. What- 
ever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to 
avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I 
shall also carry with me the hope that my country will 
never cease to view them with indulgence ; and that, 
after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service, 
with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities 
will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to 
the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and 



Jackson's farewell address. 319 

actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natu- 
ral to a man who views in it the native soil of himself 
and his progenitors for several generations ; I anticipate, 
with pleasing expectation, that retreat, in which I promise 
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of 
partaking in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign 
influence of good laws, under a free government; the 
ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, 
as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors and dangers. 

JACKSON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

Felloiv-Citizcns : 

Being about to retire finally from public life, I beg leave 
to offer you my grateful thanks for the many proofs of kind- 
ness and confidence which I have received at your hands. 
It has been my fortune, in the discharge of public duties, 
civil and military, frequently to have found myself in 
difficult and trying situations, where prompt decision and 
energetic action were necessary, and where the interests 
of the country required that high responsibilities should 
be fearlessly encountered ; and it is with the deepest emo- 
tions of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued and 
unbroken confidence with which you have sustained me 
in every trial. My public life has been a long one, and I 
cannot hope that it has at all times been free from errors. 

But I have the consolation of knowing that if mistakes 
have been committed, they have not seriously injured the 
country I so anxiously endeavoured to serve; and at the 
moment when I surrender my last public trust, I leave this 
great people prosperous and happy ; in the full enjoyment 
of liberty and peace ; and honored and respected by every 
nation of the world. 

If my humble efforts have, in any degree, contributed 
to preserve to you these blessings, I have been more than 
rewarded by the honor you have heaped upon me ; and, 
above all, by the generous confidence with which you 
have supported me in every peril, and with which you 



3^ THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

have continued to animate and cheer my path to the clos- 
ing hour of my political life. The time has now come, 
when advanced age and a broken frame warn me to re- 
tire from public concerns ; but the recollection of the 
many favors you have bestowed upon me is engraven 
upon my heart, and I have felt that I could not part from 
your service without making this public acknowledgment 
of the gratitude I owe you. And if I use the occa- 
sion to offer to you the counsels of age and experience, 
you will, I trust, receive them with the same indulgent 
kindness which you have so often extended to me ; and 
will, at least, see in them an earnest desire to perpetuate, 
in this favored land, the blessings of liberty and equal 
laws. 

We have now lived almost fifty years under the consti- 
tution framed by the sages and patriots of the revolution. 
The conflicts in which the nations of Europe were en- 
gaged during a great part of this period ; the spirit in 
which they waged war with each other ; and our intimate 
commercial connections with every part of the civilized 
world, rendered it a time of much difficulty for the go- 
vernment of the United States. We have had our sea- 
sons of peace and of war, with all the evils which precede 
or follow a state of hostility with powerful nations. We 
encountered these trials with our constitution yet in its 
infancy, and under the disadvantages which a new and 
untried government must always feel when it is called to 
put forth its whole strength, without the lights of expe- 
rience to guide it, or the weight of precedent to justify its 
measures. But we have passed triumphantly through all 
these difficulties. Our constitution is no longer a doubt- 
ful experiment ; and at the end of nearly half a century, 
we find that it has preserved unimpaired the liberties of 
the people, secured the rights of property, and that our 
country has improved, and is flourishing beyond any for- 
mer example in the history of nations. 

In our domestic concerns, there is every tiling to en- 
courage us ; and if you are true to yourselves, nothing 
can impede your march to the highest point of national 
prosperity. The states which had so long been retarded 
in their improvement, by the Indian tribes residing in the 



Jackson's farewell address. 321 

midst of them, are at length relieved from tlie evil ; and 
this unhappy race — the original dwellers in our land — are 
now placed in a situation where we may well hope that 
they will share in the blessings of civilization, and be 
saved from that degradation and destruction to which they 
were rapidly hastening while they remained in the states ; 
and while the safety and comfort of our own citizens 
have been greatly promoted by their removal, the philan- 
thropist will rejoice that the remnant of that ill-fated race 
has been at length placed beyond the reach of injury or 
oppression, and that the paternal care of the general 
government will hereafter watch over them and protect 
them. 

If we turn to our relations with foreign powers, we 
find our condition equally gratifying. Actuated by the 
sincere desire to do justice to every nation, and to pre- 
serve the blessing of peace, our intercourse with them 
has been conducted on the part of this government in 
the spirit of frankness, and I take pleasure in saying that 
it has generally been met in a corresponding temper. 
Difficulties of old standing have been surmounted by 
friendly discussion and the mutual desire to be just ; and 
the claims of our citizens, which had been long withheld, 
have at length been acknowledged and adjusted, and sa- 
tisfactory arrangements made for their final payment ; and 
with a limited, and, I trust, a temporary exception, our 
relations with every foreign power are now of the most 
friendly cliaracter, our commerce continually expanding, 
and our flag respected in every quarter of the world. 

These cheering and grateful prospects, and these mul- 
tiplied favors, we owe, under Providence, to the adoption 
of the federal constitution. It is no longer a question 
whether this great country can remain happily united, and 
flourish under our present form of government. Expe- 
rience, the unerring test of all human undertakings, has 
shown the wisdom and foresight of those who framed it ; 
and has proved, that in the union of these states there is 
a sure foundation for the brightest hopes of freedom, and 
for the happiness of the people. At every hazard, and 
by every sacrifice, this union must be preserved. 

The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety for the 



322 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

preservation of the union, was earnestly pressed upon his 
fellow-citizens by the father of his country, in his fare- 
well address. He has there told us, that " while experi- 
ence shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, 
there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of 
those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its 
bonds ;" and he has cautioned us in the strongest terms 
against the formation of parties, on geographical discri- 
minations, as one of the means which might disturb our 
union, and to which designing men would be likely to 
resort. 

The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of 
Washington to his countrymen, should be cherished in 
the heart of every citizen to the latest generation; and, 
perhaps, at no period of time could they be more usefully 
remembered than at the present moment. For when we 
look upon the scenes that are passing around us, and 
dwell upon the pages of his parting address, his paternal 
counsels would seem to be not merely the offspring of 
wisdom and foresight, but the voice of prophecy foretell- 
ing events, and warning us of the evil to come. Forty 
years have passed since this imperishable document was 
given to his countrymen. The federal constitution was 
then regarded by him as an experiment, and he so speaks 
of it in his address ; but an experiment upon the success 
of which the best hopes of his country depended, and we 
all know that he was prepared to lay down his life, if 
necessary, to secure to it a full and fair trial. The trial 
has been made. It has succeeded beyond the proudest 
hopes of those who framed it. Every quarter of this 
widely extended nation has felt its blessings, and shared 
in the general prosperity produced by its adoption. But 
amid this general prosperity and splendid success, the 
dangers of which he warned us are becoming every day 
more evident, and the signs of evil are sufficiently appa- 
rent to awaken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of the 
patriot. We behold systematic efforts publicly made to 
sow the seeds of discord between different parts of the 
United States, and to place party divisions directly upon 
geographical distinctions ; to excite the south against the 
north, and the north against the south, and to force into 



Jackson's farewell address. 323 

(lie controversy the most delicate and excited topics upon 
which it is impossible that a large portion of the Union 
can ever speak without strong emotions. Appeals, too, 
are constantly made to sectional interests, in order to in- 
fluence the election of the chief magistrate, as if it were 
desired that he should favor a particular quarter of the 
country, instead of fulfilling the duties of his station with 
impartial justice to all ; and the possible dissolution of the 
Union has at length become an ordinary and familiar 
subject of discussion. Has the warning voice of Wash- 
ington been forgotten ? or have designs already been 
formed to sever the Union ? Let it not be supposed that 
I impute to all of those who have taken an active part in 
these unwise and unprofitable discussions a want of patri- 
otism or of public virtue. The honorable feeling of state 
pride and local attachments, find a place in the bosoms 
of the most enlightened and pure. But while such men 
are conscious of their own integrity and honesty of pur- 
pose, they ought never to forget that the citizens of other 
states are their political brethren ; and that, however mis- 
taken they may be in their views, the great body of them 
are equally honest and upright with themselves. Mutual 
suspicions and reproaches may in time create mutual 
hostility, and artful and designing men will always be 
found, who are ready to foment these fatal divisions, and 
to inflame the natural jealousies of different sections of 
the country. The history of the world is full of such 
examples, and especially the history of republics. 

What have you to gain by division and dissension? 
Delude not yourselves with the belief that a breach once 
made may be afterwards repaired. If the Union is once 
severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, 
and the controversies which are now debated and settled 
in the halls of legislation, will then be tried in fields of 
battle, and be determined by the sword. Neither should 
you deceive yourselves with the hope, that the first line 
of separation would be the permanent one, and that no- 
thing but harmony and concord would be found in the 
new associations, formed upon the dissolution of this 
Union. Local interests would still be found there, and 
unchastened ambition. And if the recollection of com- 



324 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

nion dangers, in which the people of these United States 
stood side by side against the common foe ; the memory 
of victories won by their united valor ; the prosperity and 
happiness they have enjoyed under the present constitu- 
tion ; the proud name they bear as citizens of this great 
republic ; if these recollections and proofs of common 
interest are not strong enough to bind us together as one 
people, what tie will hold this Union dissevered ? The 
first line of separation would not last for a single genera- 
tion ; new fragments would be torn off: new leaders would 
spring up ; and this great and glorious republic would soon 
be broken into a multitude of petty states ; armed for 
mutual aggressions; loaded with taxes to pay armies and 
leaders ; seeking aid against each other from foreign pow- 
ers ; insulted and trampled upon by the nations of Eu- 
rope, until harassed with conflicts, and humbled and de- 
based in spirit, they would be ready to submit to the 
absolute dominion of any military adventurer, and to 
surrender their liberty for the sake of repose. It is im- 
possible to look on the consequences that would inevita- 
bly follow the destruction of this government, and not 
feel indignant when we hear cold calculations about the 
value of the Union, and have so constantly before us a 
line of conduct so well calculated to weaken its ties. 

There is too much at stake to allow pride or passion to 
influence your decision. Never for a moment believe 
that the great body of the citizens of any state or states 
can deliberately intend to do wrong. They may, under 
the influence of temporary excitement or misguided opi- 
nions, commit mistakes ; they may be misled for a time 
by the suggestions of self-interest ; but in a community 
so enlightened and patriotic as the people of the United 
States, argument will soon make them sensible of their 
errors ; and when convinced, they will be ready to repair 
them. If they have no higher or better motives to govern 
them, they will at least perceive that their own interest 
requires them to be just to others as they hope to receive 
justice at their hands. 

But in order to maintain the Union unimpaired, it is 
absolutely necessary that the laws passed by the constitu- 
ted authorities should be faithfully executed iu every part 



Jackson's farewell address. 325 

of the country, and that every good citizen should, at all 
times, stand ready to put down, with the combined force 
of the nation, every attempt at unlawful resistance, under 
whatever pretext it may be made, or whatever shape it 
may assume. Unconstitutional or oppressive laws may no 
doubt be passed by Congress, either from erroneous views 
or the want of due consideration ; if they are within 
reach of judicial authority, the remedy is easy and peace- 
ful ; and if, from the character of the law, it is an abuse 
of power not within the control of the judiciary, then free 
discussion and calm appeals to reason and to the justice 
of the people, will not fail to fedress the wrong. But 
until the law shall be declared void by the courts, or re- 
pealed by Congress, no individual or combination of indi- 
viduals, can be justified in forcibly resisting its execution. 
It is impossible that any government can continue to exist 
upon any other principles. It would cease to be a govern- 
ment, and be unworthy of the name, if it had not the 
power to enforce the execution of its own laws within its 
own sphere of action. 

It is true that cases may be imagined disclosing such a 
settled purpose of usurpation and oppression, on the part 
of the government, as would justify an appeal to arms. 
These, however, are extreme cases, which we have no 
reason to apprehend in a government where the power is 
in the hands of a patriotic people ; and no citizen who 
loves his country, would in any case whatever resort to 
forcible resistance, unless he clearly saw that the time had 
come when a freeman should prefer death to submission ; 
for if such a struggle is once begun, and the citizens of 
one section of the country, arrayed in arms against those 
of another, in doubtful conflict, let the battle result as it 
may, there will be an end of the Union, and with it an 
end of the hopes of freedom. The victory of the injured 
would not secure to them the blessings of liberty ; it 
would avenge their wrongs, but they would themselves 
share in the common ruin. 

But the constitution cannot be maintained, nor the 

Union preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the 

mere exertion of the coercive powers confided to the 

general government. The foundations must be laid in 

28 



326 THE TRUE AMfiPjCAN. 

the affections of the people ; in the security it gives to 
life, liberty, character, and property, in every quarter of 
the country ; and in the fraternal attachments which the 
citizens of the several states bear to one another, as mem- 
bers of one political family, mutually contributing to pro- 
mote the happiness of each other. Hence the citizens of 
every state should studiously avoid every thing calculated 
to wound the sensibility or offend the just pride of the 
people of other states ; and they should frown upon any 
proceedings within their own borders likely to disturb the 
tranquillity of their political brethren in other portions 
of the Union. In a country so extensive as the United 
States, and with pursuits so varied, the internal regula- 
tions of the several states must frequently differ from one 
another in important particulars ; and this difference is 
unavoidably increased by the varying principles upon 
which the American colonies were originally planted ; 
principles which had taken deep root in their social rela- 
tions before the revolution, and therefore, of necessity, 
influencing their policy since they became free and inde- 
pendent states. But each state has the unquestionable 
right to regulate its own internal concerns according to 
its own pleasure ; and while it does not interfere with the 
rights of the people of other states, or the rights of the 
Union, every state must be the sole judge of that measure 
proper to secure the safety of its citizens and promote 
their happiness ; and all efforts on the part of the people 
of other states to cast odium upon their institutions, and 
all measures calculated to disturb their rights of property, 
or to put in jeopardy their peace and internal tranquillity, 
are in direct opposition to the spirit in which the Union 
was formed, and must endanger its safety. Motives of 
philanthropy may be assigned for this unwarrantable in- 
terference ; and weak men may persuade themselves for 
a moment that they are laboring in the cause of humanity, 
and asserting the rights of the human race ; but every 
one, upon sober reflection, will see that nothing but mis- 
chief can come from these improper assaults upon the 
feelings and rights of others. Rest assured, that the men 
found busy in this work of discord are not worthy of your 
confidence, and deserve your strongest reprobation. 



Jackson's farewell address. 327 

In the legislation of Congress, also, and in every mea- 
6ure of the general government, justice to every portion 
of the United States should be faithfully observed. No 
free government can stand without virtue in the people, 
and a lofty spirit of patriotism ; and if the sordid feelings 
of mere selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to 
be filled by public spirit, the legislation of Congress will 
soon be converted into a scramble for personal and sec- 
tional advantages. Under our free institutions the citi- 
zens in every quarter of our country are capable of at- 
taining a high degree of prosperity and happiness, without 
seeking to profit themselves at the expense of others ; and 
every such attempt must in the end fail to succeed, for 
the people in every part of the United States are too en- 
lightened not to understand their own rights and interests, 
and to detect and defeat every effort to gain undue advan- 
tages over them ; and when such designs are discovered, 
it naturally provokes resentments which cannot be always 
allayed. Justice, full and ample justice, to every portion 
of the United States, should be the ruling principle of 
every freeman, and should guide the deliberations of 
eyery public body, whether it be state or national. 

It is well known that there have always been those 
among us who wish to enlarge the powers of the general 
government; and experience would seem to indicate that 
there is a tendency on the part of this government to 
overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the consti- 
tution. Its legitimate authority is abundantly sufficient 
for all the purposes for which it is created ; and its pow- 
ers being expressly enumerated, there can be no justifica- 
tion for claiming any thing beyond them. Every attempt 
to exercise power beyond these limits should be promptly 
and firmly opposed. For one evil example will lead to 
other measures still more mischievous ; and if the prin- 
ciple of constructive powers, or supposed advantages, or 
temporary circumstances, shall ever be permitted to jus- 
tify the assumption of a power not given by the constitu- 
tion, the general government will before long absorb all the 
powers of legislation, and you will have in effect, but ona 
consolidated government. From the extent of our coun- 
try, its diversified interests, different pursuits, and diffe- 



328 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

rent habits, it is too obvious for argument that a single 
consolidated government would be wholly inadequate to 
watch over and protect its interests ; and every friend of 
our free institutions should be always prepared to main- 
tain unimpaired and in full vigor the rights and sove- 
reignty of the states, and to confine the action of the 
general government strictly to the sphere of its appropri- 
ate duties. 

There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on 
the federal government so liable to abuse as the taxing 
power. The most productive and convenient sources of 
revenue were necessarily given to it, that it might perform 
the important duties imposed upon it ; and the taxes 
which it lays upon commerce being concealed from the 
real payer in the price of the article, they do not so rea- 
dily attract the attention of the people as smaller sums 
demanded from them directly by the tax-gatherer. But 
the tax imposed on goods, enhances by so much the price 
of the commodity to the consumer; and as many of these 
duties are imposed on articles of necessity which are 
daily used by the great body of the people, the money 
raised by these imposts is drawn from their pockets. Con- 
gress has no right under the constitution to take money 
from the people unless it is required to execute some one 
of the specific powers intrusted to the government : and 
if they raise more than is necessary for such purpo- 
ses, it is an abuse of the power of taxation, and unjust 
and oppressive. It may indeed happen that the revenue 
will sometimes exceed the amount anticipated when the 
taxes were laid. When, however, this is ascertained, it 
is easy to reduce them ; and, in such a case, it is unques- 
tionably the duty of the government to reduce them, for 
no circumstances can justify it in assuming a power not 
given to it by the constitution, nor in taking away the 
money of the people when it is not needed for the legiti- 
mate wants of the government. 

Plain as these principles appear to be, you will find 
that there is a constant effort to induce the general go- 
vernment to go beyond the limits of its taxing power, and 
to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people. Many 
powerful interests are continually at work to procure hea- 



JACKSON S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 329 

vy duties on commerce, and to swell the revenue beyond 
the real necessities of the public service ; and the country 
has already felt the injurious effects of their combined in- 
fluence. They succeeded in obtaining a tariff of duties 
bearing most oppressively on the agricultural and laboring 
classes of society, and producing a revenue that could 
not be usefully employed within the range of the powers 
conferred upon Congress ; and, in order to fasten upon 
the people this unjust and unequal system of taxation, ex- 
travagant schemes of internal improvement were got up, 
in various quarters, to squander the money and to pur- 
chase support. Thus, one unconstitutional measure was 
intended to be upheld by another, and the abuse of the 
power of taxation was to be maintained by usurping the 
power of expending the money in internal improvements. 
You cannot have forgotten the severe and doubtful strug- 
gle through which we passed, when the executive depart- 
ment of the government, by its veto, endeavored to arrest 
this prodigal scheme of injustice, and to bring back the 
legislation of Congress to the boundaries prescribed by 
the constitution. The good sense and practical judgment 
of the people, when the subject was brought before them, 
sustained the course of the executive ; and this plan of 
unconstitutional expenditure for the purposes of corrupt 
influence is, I trust, finally overthrown. 

The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid 
extinguishment of the public debt, and the large accumu- 
lation of a surplus in the treasury, notwithstanding the 
tariff was reduced, and is now far below the amount ori- 
ginally contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon it, 
the design to collect an extravagant revenue, and to bur- 
den you with taxes beyond the economical wants of the 
government, is not yet abandoned. The various interests 
which have combined together to impose a heavy tariff, 
and to produce an overflowing treasury, are too strong, 
and have too much at stake, to surrender the contest. 
The corporations and wealthy individuals who are en- 
gaged in large manufacturing establishments, desire a 
high tariff to increase their gains. Designing politicians 
will support it to conciliate their fiivor, and to obtain the 
means of profuse expenditure, for the purpose of purcha- 
28* 



330 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

sing influence in other quarters ; and since the people 
have decided that the federal government cannot be per- 
mitted to employ its income in internal improvements, 
efTorts will be made to seduce and mislead the citizens 
of the several states by holding out to them the deceitful 
prospect of benefits to be derived from a surplus revenue 
collected by tlie general government, and annually divi- 
ded among the states. And if encouraged by these falla- 
cious hopes, the states should disregard the principles of 
economy which ought to characterise every republican 
government, and should indulge in lavish expenditures 
exceeding their resources,, they will, before long, find 
themselves oppressed with debts which they are unable 
to pay, and the temptation will become irresistible to 
support a high tariff, in order to obtain a surplus dis- 
tribution. Do not allow yourselves, my fellow-citizens, 
to be misled on this subject. The federal government 
cannot collect a surplus for such purposes, without viola- 
ting the principles of the constitution, and assuming pow- 
ers which have not been granted. It is, moreover, a 
system of injustice, and, if persisted in, will inevitably 
lead to corruption, and must end in ruin. The surplus 
revenue will be drawn from the pockets of the people — 
from the farmer, the mechanic, and the laboring classes 
of society ; but who will receive it when distributed among 
the states, where it is to be disposed of by leading politi- 
cians who have friends to favor, and political partisans to 
gratify 1 It will certainly not be returned to those who 
paid it, and who have most need of it, and are honest y 
entitled to it. There is but one safe rule, and that is to 
confine the general government rigidly within the sphere 
of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise a re- 
venue, or impose taxes, except for the purposes enumera- 
ted in the constitution ; and if its income is found to 
exceed these wants, it should be forthwith reduced, and 
the burdens of the people so far lightened. 

In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place be- 
tween different interests in the United States, and the 
policy pursued since the adoption of our present form of 
government, we find nothing that has produced such 
deep-seated evil as the course of legislation in relation to 



jacicson's farewell address. 331 

the currency. The constitution of the United States un- 
questionably intended to secure the people a circulating 
medium of gold and silver. But the establishment of a 
national bank by Congress, with the privilege of issuing 
paper money receivable in thepaymentof the public dues, 
and the unfortunate course of legislation in the several 
states upon the same subject, drove from general circula- 
tion the constitutional currency, and substituted one of 
paper in its place. 

It v/as not easy for men engaged in the ordinary pur- 
suits of business, whose attention had not been particu- 
larly drawn to the subject, to foresee all the consequences 
of a currency exclusively of paper : and we ought not, 
on that account, to be surprised at the facility with which 
laws were obtained to carry into effect the paper system. 
Honest, and even enlightened men are sometimes misled 
by the specious and plausible statements of the design- 
ing. But experience has now proved the mischiefs and 
dangers of a paper currency, and it rests with you to de- 
termine whether the proper remedy shall be applied. 

The paper system being founded on public confidence, 
and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to 
great and sudden fluctuations ; thereby rendering pro- 
perty insecure, and the wages of labor unsteady and 
uncertain. The corporations which create the paper 
money cannot be relied upon to keep the circulating 
medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, 
when confidence is high, they are tempted, by the pros- 
pect of gain, or by the influence of those who hope to 
profit by it, to extend their issues of paper beyond the 
bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of 
business. And when these issues have been pushed on, 
from day to day, until public confidence is at length 
shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they immedi- 
ately withdraw the credits they have given ; suddenly 
curtail their issues ; and produce an unexpected and ru- 
inous contraction of the circulating medium, which is 
felt by the whole community. The banks, by this means, 
save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of 
their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public. 
Nor does the evil stop here. These ebbs and flows in 



333 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

the currency, and these indiscreet extensions of credit, 
naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious to the 
habits and character of the people. We have already 
seen its effects in the wild spirit of speculation in the 
public lands, and various kinds of stock, which within 
the last year or two, seized upon such a multitude of our 
citizens, and threatened to pervade all classes of society, 
and to withdraw their attention from the sober pursuits 
of honest industry. It is not by encouraging this spirit 
that we shall best preserve public virtue, and promote 
the true interests of our country. But if your currency 
continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster 
this eager desire to amass wealth without labor ; it will 
multiply the number of dependents on bank accommo- 
dations and bank favors ; the temptation to obtain money 
at any sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and 
inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into 
your public councils, and destroy, at no distant day, the 
purity of your government. Some of the evils which 
arise from this system of paper, press with peculiar hard- 
ship upon the class of society least able to bear it. A 
portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated 
or worthless, and all of it is easily counterfeited, in such 
a manner as to require peculiar skill and much experience 
to distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine notes. 

These frauds are most generally perpetrated in the 
smaller notes, which are used in the daily transactions of 
ordinary business ; and the losses occasioned by them 
are commonly thrown upon the laboring classes of soci- 
ety, whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power 
to guard themselves from these impositions, and whose 
daily wages are necessary for their subsistence. It is the 
duty of every government so to regulate its currency, as 
to protect this numerous class as far as practicable from 
the impositions of avarice and fraud. It is more espe- 
cially the duty of the United States, where the govern- 
ment is emphatically the government of the people, and 
where this respectable pKjrtion of our citizens are so 
proudly distinguished from the laboring classes of all 
other nations, by their independent spirit, their love of 
liberty, their intelligence, and their high tone of moral 



Jackson's farewell address. 333 

character. Their industry in peace, is the source of our 
wealth ; and their bravery in war, has covered us with 
glory ; and the government of the United States will but 
ill discharge its duties, if it leaves them a prey to such 
dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that their inte- 
rests cannot be effectually protected, unless silver and gold 
are restored to circulation. 

These views alone, of the paper currency, are suffi- 
cient to call for immediate reform ; but there is another 
consideration which should still more strongly press it 
upon your attention. 

Recent events have proved that the paper money sys- 
tem of this country, may be used as an engine to under- 
mine your free instiiutions ; and that those who desire to 
engross all power in the hands of the few, and to govern 
by corruption or force, are aware of its power, and pre- 
pared to employ it. Your banks now furnish your only 
circulating medium, and money is plenty or scarce, ac- 
cording to the quantity of notes issued by them. While 
they have capitals not greatly disproportioned to each 
other, they are competitors in business, and no one of 
them can exercise dominion over the rest ; and although, 
in the present state of the currency, these banks may 
and do operate injuriously upon the habits of business, 
the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone of society ; 
yet, from their number and dispersed situation, they can- 
not combine for the purposes of political influence ; and 
whatever may be the dispositions of some of them, their 
power of mischief must necessarily be confined to a 
narrow space, and felt only in their immediate neigh- 
borhood. 

But when the charter for the Bank of the United 
States was obtained from Congress, it perfected the 
schemes of the paper system, and gave its advocates the 
position they have struggled to obtain, from the com- 
mencement of the federal government down to the pre- 
sent hour. The immense capital, the peculiar privileges 
bestowed upon it, enabled it to exercise despotic sway 
over the other banks in every part of the country. From 
its superior strength, it could seriously injure, if not de- 
stroy the business of any one of them which might incur 



3M THC TRUB AMERICAIV. 

ks resentment ; and it openly claimed for itself the powet 
of regulating the currency throughout the United States. 
In other words, it asserted (and undoubtedly possessed) 
the power to make money plenty or scarce, at its pleasure, 
at any time, and in any quarter of the Union by con- 
trolling the issues of other banks, and permitting an 
expansion, or compelling a general contraction, of the 
circulating medium, according to its own will. The 
other banking institutions were sensible of its strength, 
and they soon generally became its obedient instruments, 
ready at all times, to execute its mandates ; and with the 
banks necessarily went also that numerous class of per- 
sons in our commercial cities, who depend altogether on 
bank credits for their solvency and means of business; 
and who are, therefore, obliged, for their own safety, to 
propitiate the favor of the money power by distinguished 
zeal and devotion in its service. The result of the ill- 
advised legislation which established this great monopoly 
was to concentrate the whole moneyed power of the 
Union, with its boundless means of corruption, and its 
numerous dependents, under the direction and command 
of one acknowledged head ; thus organizing this particu- 
lar interest as one body, and securing to it unity and 
concert of action throughout the United States, and en- 
abling it to bring forward, upon any occasion, its entire 
and undivided strength to support or defeat any measure 
of the government. In the hands of this formidable 
power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed unlimited 
dominion over the amount of the circulating medium, 
giving it the power to regulate the value of property and 
the fruits of labor in every quarter'of the Union ; and to 
bestow prosperity, or bring ruin upon any city or section 
of the country, as might best comport with its own inte- 
rest or policy. 

We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power, 
thus organized, and with such a weapon in its hands, 
would be likely to use it. The distress and alarm which 
pervaded and agitated the whole country, when the Bank 
of the United States waged war upon the people, in order 
to compel them to submit to its demands, cannot yet be 
forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing temper with which 



JACKSON S TAREWEtL ADDRESS. 355 

whole cities and communities were oppressed, individu- 
als impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful 
prosperity suddenly changed into one of gloom and 
despondency, ought to be indelibly impressed on the 
memory of the people of the United States. If such 
was its power in a time of peace, what would it not have 
been in a season of war, with an enemy at your doors? 
No nation but the freemen of the United States could 
have come out victorious from such a contest ; yet, if you 
had not conquered, the government would have passed 
from the hands of the many to the hands of the few ; 
and this organized money power, from its secret con- 
clave, would have dictated the choice of your highest 
officers, and compelled you to make peace or war, as best 
suited their own wishes. The forms of your govern- 
ment might, for a time, have remained ; but its living 
spirit would have departed from it. 

The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by 
the bank, aVe some of the fruits of that system of policy 
which is continually striving to enlarge the authority of 
the federal government beyond the limits fixed by the 
constitution. The powers enumerated in that instru- 
ment do not confer on Congress the right to establish 
such a corporation as the Bank of the United States ; 
and the evil consequences which followed may warn us 
of the danger of departing from the true rule of con- 
struction, and of permitting temporary circumstances, or 
the hope of better promoting the public welfare, to influ- 
ence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of the 
authority of the general government. Let us abide by 
the constitution as it is written, or amend it in the con- 
stitutional mode if it is found defective. 

The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be 
sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering 
such a monopoly, even if the constitution did not pre- 
sent an insuperable objection to it. But you must re- 
member, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the 
people is the price of liberty ; and that you must pay the 
price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behoves 
you, therefore, to be watchful in your states, as well as 
in the federal government. The power which the mo- 



336 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

neyed interest can exercise, when concentrated under a 
single head and with our present system of currency, 
was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by the 
United States Bank. Defeated in the general govern* 
ment, the s^me class of intriguers and politicians will 
now resort to the states, and endeavor to obtain there the 
same organization, which they failed to perpetuate in 
the Union; and with specious and deceitful plans of pub- 
lic advantages, and state interests, and state pride, they 
will endeavor to establish, in the different states, one 
moneyed institution with overgrown capital, and exclu 
sive privileges sufficient to enable it to control the ope- 
rations of other banks. Such an institution will be 
pregnant with the same evils produced by the Bank of 
the United States, although its sphere of action is more 
confined ; and in the state in which it is chartered, the 
money power will be able to embody its whole strength, 
and to move together with undivided force, to accomplish 
any object it may wish to attain. You have already had 
abundant evidence of its powers to inflict injury upon the 
agricultural, mechanical, and laboring classes of society ; 
and over those whose engagements in trade or specula- 
tion render them dependent on bank facilities, the domin- 
ion of the state monopoly will be absolute, and their 
obedience unlimited. With such a bank and a paper 
currency, the money power would in a few years govern 
the state and control its measures ; and if a sufficient 
number of states can be induced to create such estab- 
lishments, the time will soon come when it will again take 
the field against the United States, and succeed in per- 
fecting and perpetuating its organization by a charter 
from Congress. 

It is one of the serious evils of our present system of 
banking,, that it enables one class of society — and that by 
no means a numerous one — by its control over the cur- 
rency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all the 
others, and to exercise more than its just proportion of 
influence in political affairs. The agricultural, the me- 
chanical, and the laboring classes, have little or no share 
in the direction of the great moneyed corporations; and 
from their habits and the nature of their pursuits, they 



Jackson's farewell address. 337 

are incapable of forming extensive combinations to act 
together with united force. Such concert of action may 
sometimes be produced in a single city, or in a small dis- 
trict of country, by means of personal communications 
with each other ; but they have no regular or active cor- 
respondence with those who are engaged in similar pur- 
suits in distant places ; they have but little patronage to 
give to the press, and exercise but a small share of influ- 
ence over it ; they have no crowd of dependents about 
them, who hope to grow rich without labor, by their 
countenance and favor, and who are, therefore, always 
ready to execute their wishes. The planter, the farmer, 
the mechanic, and the laborer, all know that their suc- 
cess depends upon their own industry and economy, and 
that they must not expect to become suddenly rich by the 
fruits of their toil. Yet these classes form the great body 
of the people of the United States; they are the bone 
and sinew of the country ; men who love liberty, and 
desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws, and who, 
moreover, hold the great mass of our national wealth, 
although it is distributed in moderate amounts among 
the millions of freemen who possess it. But, with over- 
whelming numbers and wealth on their side, they are in 
constant danger of losing their fair influence in the govern- 
ment, and with difliculty maintain their just rights against 
the incessant efforts daily made to encroach upon them. 

The mischief springs from the power which the mo- 
neyed interest derives from a paper currency, which they 
are able to control, from the multitude of corporations 
with exclusive privileges, which they have succeeded in 
obtaining in the different states, and which are employed 
altogether for their benefit, and unless you become more 
watchful in your states, and check this spirit of monopo- 
ly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will, in the end, 
find that the most important powers of government have 
been given or bartered away, and the control over your 
dearest interests has passed into the hands of these cor- 
porations. 

The paper-moneyed system, and its natural associates, 
monopoly and exclusive privileges, have already struck 
their roots deep in the soil, and it will require all your 
39 



338 THE TRUE AMERICAN 

efforts to check its further growth, and to eradicate the 
evil. The men who profit by the abuses, and desire to 
perpetuate them, will continue to besiege the halls of 
legislation in the general government as well as in the 
states, and will seek, by every artifice, to mislead and de- 
ceive the public servants. It is to yourselves that you 
must look for safety and the means of guarding and per- 
petuating your free institutions. In your hands is right- 
fully placed the sovereignty of the country, and to you 
every one placed in authority is ultimately responsible. 
It is always in your power to see that the wishes of the 
people are carried into faithful execution, and their will, 
when once made known, must sooner or later be obeyed. 
And while the people remain, as I trust they ever will, 
uncorrupted and incorruptible, and continue watchful and 
jealous of their rights, the government is safe, and the 
cause of freedom will continue to triumph over all its 
enemies. 

But it will require steady and persevering exertions on 
your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs 
of the paper system, and to check the spirit of monopoly 
and other abuses which have sprung up with it, and of 
which it is the main support. So many interests are uni- 
ted to resist all reform on this subject, that you must not 
hope the conflict will be a short one, nor success easy. 
My humble efforts have not been spared, during my ad- 
ministration of the government, to restore the constitu- 
tional currency of gold and silver ; and something, I trust, 
has been done towards the accomplishment of this most 
desirable object. But enough yet remains to require all 
your energy and perseverance. The power, however, is 
in your hands, and the remedy must and will be applied 
if you determine upon it. 

While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your atten- 
tion the principles which I deem of vital importance to 
the domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to pass 
over without notice, the important considerations which 
should govern your policy towards foreign powers. It is 
unquestionably our true interest to cultivate the most 
friendly understanding with every nation, and to avoid, by 
every honorable means, the calamities of war ; and we 



jack.so.n's farkweli, address. 839 

shall best attain that object by frankness and sincerity in 
our foreign intercourse, by the prompt and faithful exe- 
cution of treaties, and by justice and impartiality in our 
conduct to all. But no nation, however desirous of 
peace, can hope to escape collisions with other powers ; 
and the soundest dictates of policy require that we should 
place ourselves in a condition to assert our rights, if a 
resort to force should ever become necessary. Our local 
situation, our long line of sea-coast, indented by nume- 
rous bays, with deep rivers opening into tlie interior, as 
well as her extended and still increasing commerce, point 
to the navy as our natural means of defence. It will, in 
the end, be found to be the cheapest and most effectual ; 
and now is the time, in a season of peace, and with an 
overflowing revenue, that we can year after year add to 
its strength, without increasing the burdens of the peo- 
ple. It is your true policy. For your navy will not only 
protect your rich and flourishing commerce in distant 
seas, but enable you to reach and annoy the enemy, and 
will give to defence its greatest efficiency, by meeting 
danger at a distance from home. It is impossible by any 
line of fortifications to guard every point from attack 
against a hostile force advancing from the ocean, and se- 
lecting its object ; but they are indispensable to prevent 
cities from bombardment ; dock-yards and navy arsenals 
from destruction ; to give shelter to merchant vessels in 
time of war, and to single ships of weaker squadrons 
when pressed by superior force. Fortifications of this 
description cannot be too soon completed and armed, and 
placed in a condition of the most perfect preparation. 
The abundant means we now possess cannot be applied 
in any manner more useful to the country ; and when this 
is done, and our naval force sufficiently strengthened, and 
our military armed, we need not fear that any nation will 
wantonly insult us, or needlessly provoke hostilities. We 
shall more certainly preserve peace, when it is well un- 
derstood that we are prepared for war. 

In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting 
counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles 
upon which I endeavored to administer the government 
in the high office with which you twice honored me. 



340 THK TRUE AMERICAN. 

Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by 
enemies, who often assume the disguise of friends, I have 
devoted the last hours of my public life to warn you of 
the dangers. The progress of the United States, under 
our free and happy institutions, has surpassed the most 
sanguine hopes of the founders of the republic. Our 
growth has been rapid beyond all former example, in 
numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful arts 
which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man ; 
and from the earliest ages of history to the present day, 
there never have been thirteen millions of people asso- 
ciated together in one political body, who enjoyed so 
much freedom and happiness as the people of these United 
States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger 
from abroad ; your strength and power are well known 
throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and 
gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among 
yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disap- 
pointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power, that 
factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is 
against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may 
assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. 
You have the highest of human trusts committed to your 
care. Providence has showered on this favored land 
blessings without number, and has chosen you, as the 
guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the 
human race. May He, who holds in his hands the desti- 
nies of nations, make you worthy of the favors he has 
bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts, and pure 
hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the 
end of time the great charge he has committed to your 
keeping. 

My own race is nearly run ; advanced age and failing 
health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the 
reach of human events, and cease to feel the vicissitudes 
of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been 
spent in a land of liberty, and that he has given me a 
heart to love my country with the affection of a son. And 
filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering 
kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell. 



ADDRESS 

TO THE 

YOUNG MEN AND TO THE PEOPLE 

OF AMERICA. 

Fellow-Citizens : 

The American people seem to have been set apart by 
Providence to fulfil a lofty and peculiar destiny. The 
sublime doctrine, that all men are equal before God, may 
have been taught by sages, and deeply felt by patriots and 
philanthropists through many long centuries of slavery and 
darkness ; but never, until the great experiment of self-go- 
vernment commenced upon this western continent, was it 
any thing more than a beautiful theory. The masses of 
mankind had always fought, and toiled, and groaned, that 
a i'ew might triumph in the victories they had gained, 
reap the harvests they had cultivated, and enjoy the fruit 
of their sufferings. The monstrous faith of millions 
made for one, was the practical fiiith of all the old 
world, Christendom and pagandom, and no mighty fiat 
had proclaimed to man, be free! till Liberty opened her 
asylum, and kindled up her beacon fires in this new 
world untrodden by the foot of a tyrant. 

God has given us the heritage of freedom. The Pil- 
grims who crossed the Atlantic left behind them the im- 
mediate and bodily presence of aristocracy. The heroes 
who achieved our independence cast off the direct politi- 
cal control of the same arbitrary power. The statesmen 
who extinguished the aristocratic influence, more subtle 
but not less dangerous, of an organized money power 
emanating from Britain, consummated the work, and if 
sustained by a people understanding and loving indepen- 
dence, liberty, and equalitv, will have established the.se 
29* 



342 THE TRUE AMERICAN 

inestimable blessings and blood-bought rights upon a basis 
impregnable and everlasting. 

Never will such an opportunity be offered a second 
time to a people who had not the wisdom and the virtue 
at once to embrace it. If self-government in this full 
and fair trial of its capacities be found to fail, the hope 
of liberty is gone forever. If, on the other hand, our con- 
stitution should be found able to meet that absolute neces- 
sity out of which governments grew, if it should be found 
competent to fulfil all those high purposes for which go- 
vernments are maintained, especially if it should be found 
to answer the ends for which men in society have mutu- 
ally surrendered some portion of their natural freedom, 
with less encroachment on their natural rights, at a cheap- 
er rate and in a more satisfactory manner, by a shorter, 
simpler, surer, and more efficient process, it is not presump- 
tuous to foretell, that sooner or later the example will be 
every where imitated, and that in the progress of time, as 
surely as ages roll on, the day will come when the light of 
liberty shall shine on all who sit in darkness, when over all 
her wide-spread continents and among her widely differing 
races, the world shall no longer be governed too much. 

This is our part in the world's work. This is the stu- 
pendous mission which we are either to thwart, or to 
accomplish. To realize these soul-cheering expectations, 
devolves upon the inhabitants of the United States of 
America. 

And who are the inhabitants of the United States ? 
Who were their fathers ? Picked men every one of them ; 
tried by the ordeal of adversity, and selected by their ten- 
derness of conscience, their steadfastness in duty, their 
daring in adventure, their fortitude under suffering. Had 
they not possessed all these qualities, the desolate coast of 
Plymouth, the inhospitable home of the savage, would never 
have received them. Had they not been actuated by the 
love of civil and religious liberty, no other motive could 
have retained them " in this howling wilderness" till they 
had made it rejoice and blossom as the rose. That such a 
people, coming at such a time, to such a country, should 
have there planted the liberty which they came to enjoy, 
and should have kept it as the apple of their eye, and that in 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 340 

piocess of time they should have become independent of 
the mother country, cannot excite surprise. That having 
no privileged orders or aristocracy of landholders among 
them, but setting out on the principle of an entire equali- 
ty of rights, they should have framed and enacted laws 
calculated to encourage, promote, and preserve that equal- 
ity, is not to be doubted. Neither is it any thing won- 
derful that the attempt should be to some extent and for a 
limited time successful. But the question which the pa- 
triot anxiously, the advocate of arbitrary governments 
sneeringly, asks, is this, — Will your system last ? Are 
there not latent causes of corruption inherent in it which 
must sooner or later work its overthrow? 

The capacity of the people in any nation to govern 
themselves, however excellent might be their intellectual, 
moral, and political education, and under whatever favor- 
able circumstances, was not merely called in question ; it 
was almost universally denied : it was only the theory of 
a few sanguine speculators upon human perfectibility, 
thinly scattered over the world, until the Fourth of July, 
seventeen hundred and seventy-six. Since that day it 
has been a fact, obvious, indisputable, penetrating every 
where, dispelling by its radiant clearness that politicd 
bigotry, in which the millions of our race had blindly 
submitted to the fiat of arbitrary power as to the irresisti- 
ble decree of fate. It is the star of Hope and Promise. 
Enlightened by its beams, the oppressed discern the weak- 
ness of the tyrant. They now no longer must bow their 
servile necks beneath the yoke of one of their fellows, 
neither stronger nor better than themselves : no longer 
must the many sow, that the few may reap : no longer 
must myriads toil, and sin, and suffer, and perish, that one 
glorious name may fill a page in history : no longer shall 
the husbandman and the artisan, torn from their peaceful 
labors to carry desolation and death to the homes of those 
who have never wronged them, be dragged, brute victims 
to slaughter, at the chariot wheels of a conqueror. Free- 
dom guarantees governments in the interests of those that 
are governed, and intelligence and virtue are now the only 
qualifications necessary for the enjoyment of freedom. 

Independence is proclaimed, and with the sound a na- 



344 THE TKUE AMERICAN.. 

tion starts into being, not like her elder sisters, held in 
thraldom, but all her limbs unbound and free; not like 
them, slow of growth, and after a tardy development, at- 
taining only to a dwarfish deformity, but like Minerva, 
from the head of Jove, at once mature in wisdom, cou- 
rage, dignity, and power, knowing her rights, and fully 
armed to maintain them against every aggressor, asking 
nothing but what is right, submitting to nothing wrong — 
equally ready to vindicate her just cause, whether Britain 
provokes her youthful energies, or France delays to do 
her justice, or Algiers or Mexico insults her hardy sons 
upon that element which is their home and empire. 

The Fourth of July, 1776, was the date of our politi- 
cal separation from Great Britain. The separation left 
the colonies independent states. But political indepen- 
dence was only a single step towards freedom from foreign 
influence. Much remained to be done — alas! much yet 
remains to be done — before these United States can be 
pronounced to be completely and in the broadest sense 
independent of Great Britain. The British spirit is still 
largely felt ; it still in a great measure predominates over 
our literature, our manners and customs, through the 
whole tone of our society, in the whole tenor and spirit 
of our laws, and in far too much of our domestic and 
foreign policy. It was natural that this should have been 
so; it is inexcusable that it should remain so. It is high 
time that we were independent, not only politically, but 
intellectually, morally, and without qualification. 

The founders of our states were British emigrants. 
They brought with them the spirit of liberty, but it was 
the spirit of British liberty, as modified by British insti- 
tutions, and as qualified by British prejudices. They were 
firm, consistent, and loyal friends of the British consti- 
tution, and they were disposed to yield a hearty obedi- 
ence to the British government, within the limits of the 
British constitution. The British government undertook 
to impose upon them burdens which the British constitu- 
tion did not warrant, and like true Englishmen they re- 
sisted. They vindicated for themselves the rights and 
privileges of Englishmen. This brought on alienation, 
war, secession, and those who at first meant only to hold 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN, SIS 

fast their birthright as British subjects, ended by casting 
off their allegiance to the British crown. 

At the commencement of the revolution, our fathers 
were, generally speaking, whigs ; that is to say, they were 
warmly attached to the British constitution as it then 
existed. They were attached, and adhered with a loyal 
fervor, to hereditary monarchy in the Protestant succes- 
sion, to a hereditary peerage, and to that elective aristo- 
cracy, the house of commons, which by a legal fiction 
was said to represent the people of Great Britain. They 
were thoroughly imbued with British principles — with 
whig principles ; but in the course of a seven years' war 
most of them got gradually, though effectually, rid of 
these principles — they ceased to be British whigs, and 
became American democrats. 

The mere act however of severing the political connec- 
tion between ourselves and the mother country did not, 
of itself, necessarily and immediately, alter the whole 
complexion of every article in the political creed of every 
American. Some, no doubt, who were most bigoted in 
their attachment to British principles, continued in the 
faith in which they were brought up — continued to be 
whigs. It has even been said, that, long after the war 
was over, there were distinguished men who still held fast 
to the whig system. It was said that Alexander Hamil- 
ton declared that the British constitution, with all its 
faults, and with all its corruptions, was the most admira- 
ble constitution upon the face of the globe, and that 
without its corruptions it would be altogether impractica- 
ble. If this were so, this great man must have been a 
thorough whig after the federal constitution had been 
some years in operation. It cannot be doubted that there 
were others who entertained, if they did not avow, the 
sentiment attributed to Hamilton. Such sentiments, un- 
der various disguises, have survived to the present day. 
There is reason to suppose that genuine whigs may yet 
be found in New England, the part of the country which 
most nearly resembles Old England, still cherishing, 
through good report and evil report, the political faith 
which they inherit from ante-revolutionary times ; like 
Bourbons, forgetting nothing, learning nothing, — un- 



346 THE TRl'E AMKRICAN. 

changeable through sixty years of hard experience. 
These whigs, however, must be antiquities and curiosi- 
ties, — few and far between, contrasting oddly enough with 
rational American democrats. 

The majority of the people, however, are not, and never 
again can be whigs. They desire, and have long desired, 
to cast off that British influence, which weighs so heavily 
upon us, from education and habit, but which is so re- 
pugnant to our institutions, condition, and character. It 
is therefore interesting to ascertain, by what steps, and 
how far, we have discarded the unwholesome control of 
notions derived from our colonial dependence ; and by 
what measures, and to what extent it is expedient that we 
should endeavor to eradicate the leaven that remains, and 
to make ourselves in very deed and truth, as our fathers 
declared that we are, and of right ought to be, free and 
independent states. 

The power to tax the colonies without their consent 
was never constitutionally possessed by Great Britain. 
The attempt to exercise this power brought on resistance, 
and a war, in the course of which the declaration of in- 
dependence was issued, and maintained. The successful 
issue of that contest, under the auspices of Washington, 
forever freed our necks from the yoke of foreign political 
supremacy. After the peace, the incompetency of the 
confederation, and the evident tendency towards anarchy 
in the several states, produced a reaction in favor of the 
British system, which, while the war was raging, had 
fallen into disrepute. The British constitution was held 
up as as the only model, and the perfect model, of a free 
government. A leading whig of those times, a more 
consistent, not to say more honest whig than any of the 
present day, proposed an executive for life, to have the 
power of nominating the governors of the different states, 
with a senate during good behavior, in effect for life, as 
conservative institutions to counterbalance the democratic 
force of the popular impulses that make themselves felt 
in our government. The democracy however was then 
so strong that not all the genius of Hamilton, with the 
authority of the genuine whigs associated with him, mighty 
names some of them, could impose upon the people a 



AODRKSS TO VOCNU Mi:x. 34'}' 

scheme bearing these aristocratic features. Under the 
mediation of Washington a compromise was effected. 
A government too strong for the fears of Patrick Henry 
and of Jefferson, and many other sagacious, patriotic, and 
eminent statesmen, but not strong enough to answer the 
views of Hamilton, and the other admirers of the British 
constitution, was recommended by the convention, and 
adopted by the popular suffrages. The crisis was safely 
passed, and the father of American freedom was a second 
time the savior of his country. 

When on the twenty-first of February, seventeen hun- 
dred eighty-seven, a grand committee of which the Hon. 
Nathan Dane was chairman, reported to congress their 
entire conviction of the inefficiency of the federal gov- 
ernment under the old confederation, and of the neces- 
sity of devising such further provisions as should render 
the same adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and 
strongly recommended to the different legislatures to send 
delegates to the convention at Philadelphia which formed 
the present constitution, they not only felt the evils to 
which the want of a supreme federal head exposed the 
country, while the bands of union were so loose that we 
could not be entitled to the character of a nation — they 
not only preceived that the country stood upon the verge 
of ruin; divided against itself; all ties dissolved; all 
parties claiming authority and refusing obedience ; sedi- 
tion, though intimidated, not disarmed ; ourselves in debt 
to foreigners, and large sums due internally ; the taxes in 
arrears, and still accumulating; manufactures destitute 
of materials, capital, and skill; agriculture despondent; 
commerce bankrupt — they not only saw and felt all this, 
[ say, but they felt the imminent danger of still greater 
evils which as yet they knew not of; they saw the com- 
bustibles collected ; the mine prepared ; the smallest 
spark capable of producing an explosion. Their sagaci- 
ty showed them in no distant future the fearful vision of 
the abyss of anarchy into which they must plunge when 
that explosion had scattered the crazy fabric of their gov- 
ernment. Hanging over the precipice, they gazed into 
the dark recesses beyond, and there beheld the broken 
and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union ;— 



348 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; a land rent with 
civil feuds, or drenched, it might be, in fraternal blood. 
The Congress who accepted that report knew well that a 
way of escape must be found from the perils that envi- 
roned them, and they knew, too, that no other refuge re- 
mained than the possibility of erecting an efficient, substan- 
tial and permanent government. They knew that a more 
intimate union of the states must be established, or the 
country must perish : every ray of hope that could light 
them on in any course but this was already extinguished. 
When Washington, in the same year, consented to serve 
in the convention called for that purpose, to assist in 
" averting the contemptible figure which the American 
communities were about to make, in the annals of man- 
kind, with their separate, independent, jealous, state sove- 
reignties," he was fully aware of the momentous import 
of the crisis and of the appalling weight of responsibility 
which devolved upon the members of that body. He 
looked forward to success in this final undertaking as to 
a welcome salvation from the vortex of ruin, and he looked 
upon the failure of this attempt, if it had issued in failure, 
as upon the wreck of American liberties and the catas- 
trophe of republican governments forever. 

It needed not the study of the Amphyctionic council, 
or of the Achaian league, or of any of those ephemeral 
alliances which were continually forming and dissolving 
among the ancient petty states of Greece, to impress upon 
his mind the solemn conviction of the reality of the view 
he then took of the posture of our affairs. It was not 
necessary to explore the annals of the German empire, to 
peruse the chronicles of the unceasing and murderous 
struggles of the Italian republics, to search the history 
of the restless cantons of Switzerland, or examine the 
records of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, 
no, nor to recur to any other unsuccessful experiment, 
ancient or modern, to be abundantly satisfied that the 
relation of free states, bordering on each other, and not 
restrained by a common government, is a relation of fierce, 
relentless, and almost unintermitted warfare. The circum- 
stances of the times exhibited but too distinctly the pre- 
vailing tendencies J collisions were becoming every day 



▲DDRESa TO tOUNG MKN. 9i^ 

more frequent and more violent ; the fury of hostile passions 
was kindling fast, and, with a little more fanning, would 
have burst into one universal, all-devouring conflagration. 

Thanks be to God, America was saved. Under the 
guidance of V/ashington and his illustrious compeers^ 
she trod the path of safety, and her progress in it has 
been a career of unparalleled prosperity and glory. Her 
wise men erected the well-proportioned edifice of a na- 
tional government, upon which foreign nations could not 
look but with respect, under whose protection the several 
states enjoy securely all their reserved rights, without en- 
croaching upon each other's privileges, or conflicting 
with each other's interests ; beneath whose friendly 
shelter agriculture, commerce, and the arts thrive and 
fructify. May its blessings be magnificent as its objects, 
coextensive with its influence, and its duration lasting as 
time ; and when after a complete century shall have rolled 
over the continent, and two hundred millions of freemen 
calling our language their mother tongue, shall have peo- 
pled, but not crowded, our vast territory, may they, as 
one united nation of brethren, look forward, through the 
distant and dim perspective of countless future ages, to 
the blight vision of coming generations, more numerous, 
wiser, happier, and better than themselves, successively, 
to the end of time, with the same confidence in the per- 
fectibility of our race, and the same reliance on the over- 
ruling favor of Providence with which we now look for- 
ward to their destiny. 

Washington not only burst asunder the British chain, 
but his wisdom and his weight of character introduced 
that expedient, our existing constitution, which averted 
the natural and the threatening revulsion of British prin- 
ciples ; a revulsion which would have been absolutely 
irresistible after a few years of suffering and anarchy. 

The constitution was an expedient which saved us on 
the one hand from anarchy and its miseries, on the other 
hand frotn that reaction ^?^ favor of tlie high-toned and 
aristocratic doctrines of the whigs, which must have fol- 
lowed anarchy. It was admirably adapted — it was almost 
miraculously adapted to its objects, considering the cir- 
cumstances under which it originated. It soon became 
30 



350 THE TRUE AMEHICAN- 

apparent however that the federal government was not to 
be an exception to the ordinary principles which regulate 
the actions of ambitious men placed in situations calcu- 
lated to stimulate their ambition. Power is to ambition 
what wealth is to avarice. Instead of satisfying the de- 
sire, it creates an insatiable craving for more. The dis- 
position of power to arrogate to itself more power, was 
exemplified in the federal government, as it had been in 
every other since the world began. This became its gui- 
ding and its governing principle ; opposition to this was 
the criterion and the substance of democracy. In its 
course it swelled and grew like a snow-ball, till it accu- 
mulated to the magnitude, and moved with the ponderous 
momentum of an avalance. 

The democratic party includes both rich and poor, 
learned and unlearned, those endowed with genius, and 
those unblessed by nature ; but its greatest strength re- 
sides in what is often called the middling interest, and 
especially in the substantial yeomanry of the country, for 
they have seldom any interest adverse to the common good 
of all. Democracy is the party of equal rights, equal 
laws, equal privileges, universal protection. Its founda- 
tion rests upon eternal principles of equity and justice. 
Its creed is in the ordination of Providence, the consti- 
tution of nature, and the wisdom of revelation. It has 
their common sanction, and therefore is not troubled with 
doubts or misgivings. Its policy is honesty, and its coun- 
sellors are common sense and an enlightened conscience. 
It has no partialities. It neither plunders the rich, nor 
oppresses the poor. It does not reserve its smiles for the 
fortunate, nor its frowns for the unhappy ; nor does it 
look with envy on success or merit, or pass by with cold 
indifference the helpless and abject, but its sympathies are 
for all, wide as the world, and liberal as the sun. It 
rather reveres those sacred axioms of immutable right 
which our fathers embodied in the declaration of inde- 
pendence, and in the articles prefixed to our constitution, 
and which form the best inheritance they have left us, 
than blindly follows them in any errors of their conduct 
wherein they forgot or violated those axioms. It admires 
and participates largely in those bold efforts for improve- 



ABBRESS TO VOUNG MEN. 351 

ment which characterise our limes, but it is not blown 
about by every wind of doctrine. It neither worships a 
venerable abuse because it is old, nor is carried away 
with every wild project of innovation because it is new. 
But it moves steadily on in its beneficent course of pru- 
dent, judicious, well-considered reform. 

The fundamental article of the democratic creed is this ; 
that the general government ought to be strictly confined 
within its proper sphere. In the words of Thomas Jef- 
ferson, taken froni an official opinion drawn up by him 
while secretary of state, they " consider the foundation 
of the constitution as laid on this ground, that all powers 
not delegated to the United States by the constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the 
states or to the people. To take a single step beyond 
the boundaries thus drawn around the powers of Con- 
gress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, 
no longer susceptible of any definition." 

Congress overstepped these boundaries in 1791, by the 
charter of the Vjank, in spite of the strenuous opposition 
of the republicans of that day, with JetFerson and Madi- 
son at their head. Hamilton, the most ardent admirer of 
the British constitution, then secretary of the treasury, 
aimed to place that department " in such an attitude as to 
command the whole action of the government." He be- 
lieved that mankind could be governed only in two ways, 
by force or by corruption. Force was out of the ques- 
tion here, of course corruption was the only alternative. 
Sir Robert Walpole, the most distinguished whig minis- 
ter of Great Britain, while first lord of the treasury and 
chancellor of the exchequer, has the credit of having ori- 
ginally introduced this system of government, which has 
been characteristic of the whig party ever since, wherever 
it has been in power, with means at its disposal. " For 
self-defence, where argument failed," says his biographer, 
" he had recourse to the more powerful influence of cor- 
ruption ; and this latter mode of conviction, which he not 
only practised from necessity, but syatanatically vindica- 
ted and rccommcndtd, gave a distinguishing character to 
his administration, and entailed reproach on his memory." 
It must be allowed that the bank party in the United 



352 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

States are richly entitled to be considered legitimate fbW 
lowers of Sir Robert Walpole, whose maxim was, that 
" every man has his price," and so far at least they have 
a right to the appellation of whigs — being not only admi- 
rers of the British constitution in theory, but admirers 
and imitators of its practical operation, under the most 
celebrated of whig administrations. 

Having once overstepped the boundaries of the consti- 
tution in the creation of a bank, the government by de-? 
grees went on to take possession of that boundless field 
of power, no longer susceptible of any definition, which 
was thus opened to them. The obstinate resistance of 
the democratic party could not prevent such legislative 
constructions of the constitution, as made it a very differ- 
ent thing from what the people thought they had submit-; 
ted to. Those sweeping powers which Hamilton and hia 
friends had sought in vain to incorporate into the consti- 
tution were extorted from it by virtue of the doctrine of 
implication. It was tortured into any shape that might 
suit their purposes. " Legislative explanations," says 
Jefferson, " were given to the constitution, and all the adr 
ministrative laws were shaped on the model of England, 
and so passed." The alien and sedition laws, the muzzling 
of the press, the unrelenting proscription for opinion's 
sake, made that period emphatically the reign of terror. 

The bone and muscle of the nation, the hope and 
strength of the people were roused at last, and took the 
power into their own hands. They perceived that it was 
their own quarrel which was to be fought out against the 
lovers of power and wealth, who were fast monopolizing 
both, to the imminent danger of the general freedom. 
They rallied therefore under the early and inflexible 
champions of the democracy ; truth and reason were the 
weapons they employed ; union gave them strength, and 
the aristocracy was prostrated before them. The immor- 
tal Jefferson was seated at the helm of state, and at once 
" restored the government to the republican tack." 

Mr. Jefferson disallowed the binding force of British 
precedents, and undertook to conduct the government 
upon American principles. His untiring efforts through 
the eight years of his presidency did much towards carrying 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 353 

back the administration to its original, constitutional sim- 
plicity, and to accommodate our institutions, which had 
begun to be warped after a foreign model, to our own 
situation, character, and circumstances. It was impossi- 
ble for him to return to the primitive purity of our sys- 
tem, however, so strongly had the British virus impregna- 
ted the whole body. He did what could be done, but to 
complete the work was reserved for his more fortunate 
successor. The constitution had been deeply violated, 
but the violation could not at that time be redressed. Mr. 
Jefferson had given his written opinion on the fifteenth 
of February, 1791, that " the incorporation of a bank, 
and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opi- 
nion, been delegated to the United States by the consti- 
tution." He might have stated this as a fact, for while 
the bank bill was under discussion, Judge Wilson was re- 
minded by Mr. Baldwin of the following occurrences in 
the grand convention. Among the powers enumerated 
in the draft of the constitution, was that to erect corjjora- 
tions. On debate, it icas stricken out. Particular pow- 
ers were then proposed ; among others, that to establish 
a NATIONAL BANK. This was opposed and RE- 
JECTED. Judge Wilson admitted the correctness of this 
statement, which is now well known from other sources. 

The late lamented Mr. Madison concluded his speech 
against the bank, in 1791, by remarking, that the power 
exercised by the bill then pending, was 

" Condemned by the silence of the constitution. 

" Condemned by the rule of interpretation arising out 
of the constitution. 

" Condemned by its tendency to destroy the main cha- 
racteristic of the constitution. 

" Condemned by the expositions of the friends of the 
constitution, whilst depending before the public. 

" Condemned by the apparent intention of the parties 
which ratified the constitution. 

" Condemned by the explanatory amendments proposed 
by Congress themselves to the constitution." 

That such a power, loaded with such condemnation, 
should, notwithstanding, have been usurped and exer- 
cised, was enough to introduce a rooted and general cor- 
30* 



354 THE TUUE AMERICAN. 

ruption which could not be removed until the cause was 
eradicated. Mr. Randolph, in 1824, after speaking of 
the " vagrant power" to charter the bank, " seeking 
through the different clauses of tlie constitution where to 
fix itself," and the vagrant power of internal improve- 
ineiits, " after being whipt from parish to parish, at last 
seeking a settlement under the war-making power" — in 
the same speech in which he asserted that a new sect had 
arisen, who, in their latitudinarian constructions of the 
constitution, as far transcended Alexander Hamilton and 
his disciples, as they transcended Thomas Jefferson, James 
Madison, and John Taylor of Caroline — attributed all 
those loose interpretations of the constitution which favor 
consolidation, to the establishment of the banking pow- 
er, as their original source. " Sir," said he, " when I 
consider this war-making power, and this money-making 
power, and suffer myself to reflect on the length to which 
they go, I feel ready to acknowledge that in yielding 
these, the states have yielded every thing. The last words 
of Patrick Henry on this subject, although uttered five 
and twenty years ago, are now ringing in my ears. I am 
sorry to say that all the difficulties under which wc have 
labored, and now labor, on this subject, have grown out 
of a fatal admission, by one of the late Presidents of the 
United States, which gave a sanction to the principle, 
that this government had the power to charter the present 
colossal Bank of the United States." 

The unconstitutional, anti- American, and strictly Brit- 
ish character of such an institution was attested, as long 
ago as eighteen hundred and eleven, by Henry Clay, whom 
vve may fairly offer as an unexceptionable witness against 
the consolidationists, the British, or whig party. " When 
gentlemen attempt to carry this measure on the ground 
of acquiescence or precedent," said Mr. Clay in his speech 
against the recharter of the old bank, " DOTHEYFOR^ 
GET THAT WE ARE NOT IN WESTMINSTER 
HALL?" 

" To legislate upon the ground merely that our prede- 
cessors thoucrht themselves authorized, under similar cir- 
cumstances to legislate, is TO SANCTIFY ERROR 
AND PERPETUATE USURPATION." 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 355 

" The great advantage of our system of government 
over all others is, that we have a written constitution de- 
fining its limits, and prescril)ing its authorities, and that, 
HOWEVER FOR A TIME, FACTION MAY CON- 
VULSE THE NATION, and passion and party preju- 
dice sway its functionaries, the season of refiection will 
recur, when calmly retracing their deeds, all aberrations 
from fundamental principles will be corrected. But once 
substitute practice for principle, the exposition of the 
constitution for the text of the constitution, and in vain 
shall we look for the instrument itself! IT WILL BE 
AS DIFFUSED AND INTANGIBLE AS THE 
PRETENDED CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND." 

'* What would be our condition if we were to take the 
interpretations given to that sacred book, which is or 
ought to be the criterion of our faith, for the book itself? 
We should find the Holy Bible buried beneath the inter- 
pretations, glossaries and comments of councils, synods, 
and learned divines, which have produced swarms of in- 
tolerant and furious sects, partaking less of the mildness 
and meekness of their origin, than of a vindictive spirit 
of hostility towards each other. They ought to afford us 
a solemn warning to make that constitution which we 
have sworn to support our invariable guide. I conceive 
then, sir, that we are not empowered by the consti- 
tution, NOR BOUND BY ANY PRACTICE UNDER IT, TO 
RENEW THE CHARTER OF THIS BANK." 

Mr. Clay believed the bank to be, not only British in 
principle, but identified with British interests. 

" May not the time arrive," he asks, " when the con- 
centration of such a vast portion of the circulating me- 
dium of the country in the hands of any corporation, 
will be DANGEROUS TO OUR LIBERTIES? By 
whom is this immense power wielded ? By a body who, 
in derogation of the great principle of all our institu- 
tions, responsibility to the people, is amenable to a few 
stockholders, and they chieely foreigners. Suppose 
an attempt to subvert tliis government, would not the 
traitor first aim, by force or corruption, to acquire the 
treasure of this company ? Look at it in another aspect. 
Seven tenths of its capital are in the hands of foreigners, 



356 THE TUUE AMERICAN. 

chiefly British subjects. We are possibly on the eve of 
a rupture with that nation. Should such an event occur, 
DO YOU APPREHEND THAT THE ENGLISH 
PREMIER WOULD EXPERIENCE ANY DIFFI- 
CULTY IN OBTAINING THE ENTIRE CON- 
TROL OF THIS INSTITUTION?" 

" Go to the other side of the Atlantic, and see what 
has been achieved for us there, by Englishmen, holding 
seven tenths of the capital of this bank. Has it released 
from galling and ignominious bondage one solitary Ame- 
ican seaman, bleeding under British oppression ? Did it 
prevent the unmanly attack upon the Chesapeake?" 

"Are we quite sure that on this side of the water, it 
has had no effect favorable to British interests ? It has 
often been stated, and although I do not know that it is 
susceptible of strict proof, I believe it to be a fact, that 
this bank exercised its influence in support of Jay's trea- 
ty, and may it not have contributed to blunt the public 
sentiment, or paralyze the efforts of this nation against 
British aggression 1" 

" The duke of Northumberland is said to be the most 
considerable stockholder in the Bank of the United 
States," &LC. 

Mr. Clay, of course, considered it to be his imperative 
duty to oppose with his whole powers the perpetuation of 
such an usurpation. He did not forget that he was not 
in Westminster Hall. " I felt myself bound," said he, 
" to obey the paramount duties I owe my country and its 
constitution ; to make one effort, however feeble, to avert 
the passage of what appears to me a most unjustifiable 
law." 

" The power to charter companies is not specified in 
the grant, and I contend, is of a nature not transferable 
by mere implication. It is one of the most exalted attri- 
butes of sovereignty. In the exercise of this gigantic 
power, we have seen an East India Company created, 
which has carried dismay, desolation, and death, through- 
out one of the largest portions of the habitable world." 

"Is it to be imagined that a power so vast would have 
been left by the wisdom of the constitution to doubtful 
inference 1" 



ADDRESS TO TOUrtO MEPT. 357 

" The question is, shall we stretch the instrument to 
embrace cases not fairly within its scope V 

The instrument having been thus perverted in 1791, it 
was impossible for Mr. Jefferson, and those with whom he 
acted, to restore it in 1801 ; for had they undertaken to 
revoke the charter of the bank, Mr. Clay has told us what 
would have been the consequence. " The judiciary would 
have been appealed to, and from the known opinions and 
predilections of the judges then composing it, they would 
have pronounced the act of incorporation, as in the na- 
ture of a contract, beyond the repealing power of any 
succeeding legislature." 

Although the bank expired at the expiration of its 
charter, in 1811, yet it revived, with augmented power, 
in 1816 ; and it was left for Andrew Jackson to fight the 
great battle for the constitution, and decisively to vindi- 
cate its supremacy. He settled the question of the bank 
charter, upon American principles, by his veto message 
of July 10, 1832. In that immortal document, which 
prostrated the moneyed power, our children, and our chil- 
dren's children, will read the fundamental maxims of a 
genuine, republican policy. It contributed much towards 
the consummation of our independence, that statesman- 
ship, such as that paper displays, should grapple with a 
death-grasp the first, the last, the greatest and the worst 
of those innovations, of foreign origin and uncongenial 
to our institutions, which had fastened themselves with 
pernicious influence, upon the beautiful simplicity of our 
government. Let us recur to the closing paragraphs. 

" It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too 
often bend the acts of government to their selfish purpo- 
ses, pistinctions in society will always exist under every 
just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of 
wealth, cannot be produced by human institutions. In 
the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven, and ihe fruits 
of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is 
equally entitled to protection by law. But when the laws 
undertake to add to these natural and just advantages, 
artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and ex- 
clusive privileges, to make the rich richer, and the potent 
more powerful, the humble members of society, the farm- 



^8 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

ers, mechanics, and laborers, who have neither the time 
nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have 
a right to complain of the injustice of their government." 

" There are no necessary evils in government. Its 
evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself 
to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower 
its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the 
poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act be- 
fore me, there seems to me a wide and unnecessary de- 
parture from these just principles. Nor is our govern- 
ment to be maintained, or our Union to be preserved, 
by invasions of the rights and powers of the several 
states. In thus attempting to make our general government 
strong, we make it weak. ITS TRUE STRENGTH 
CONSISTS IN LEAVING INDIVIDUALS AND 
STATES AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO THEM- 
SELVES — in making itself felt not in its power, but in 
its beneficence, not in its control, but in its protection, 
not in binding the states more closely to the centre, but 
leaving each to move unobstructed in its proper orbit." 

" Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the 
difficulties our government now encounters, and most of 
the dangers which impend over our Uijion, have sprung 
from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of govern- 
ment, by our national legislation, and the adoption of such 
principles as are embodied in this act. Many of our rich 
men have not been content with equal protection and 
equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer 
by acts of Congress. By attempting to gratify their de- 
sires, we have in the results of our legislation, arrayed 

SECTION AGAINST SECTION, INTEREST AGAIPJST INTEREST, 
AND MAN AGAINST MAN, IN A FEARFUL COMMOTION, WHICH 
THREATENS TO SHAKE THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR UnION. 

If we cannot at once in justice to interests vested under 
improvident legislation, make our government what it 
ought to be, we can at least take a stand against all new 
grants of monopolies, and exclusive privileges, against 
any prostitution of our government, to the advancement 
of the few at the expense of the many, and in favor of 
compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws and 
system of political economy," 



ADDRESS TO VOUNG MEN', 359 

By doctrines such as these, our illustrious President, 
while perfecting the independence of his country from 
foreign influence and foreign example, naturally earned 
for himself the hatred of our British, or whig party, who 
still answer to the description given of them in their prin- 
cipal organ ji the old world, the Edinburo-h Review, 
"THE STRENGTH OF THE WHIGS LAY IN 
THE GREAT ARISTOCRACY, IN THE COR- 
PORATIONS, AND IN THE TRADING OR MO- 
NEYED INTERESTS." But how could they expect 
to bend from his purpose, by exhibitions of their futile 
wrath, the man who discomfited their allies at New Or- 
leans? They should have remembered the assurance 
given by Thomas Jefferson, "Andrew Jackson is a clear- 
headed, strong-minded man, and HAS MORE OF THE 
ROMAN IN HIM THAN ANY OTHER MAN 
NOW LIVING." They should have remembered that 
it was to him alone that Jefferson looked to finish this 
very work which he had begun, the restoration to the 
states and people, of powers not granted to the federal 
government by the constitution. " It is fortunate," said 
the patriarch of democracy, — " it is fortunate for the coun- 
try, that General Jackson is likely to be fit for public life 
at the end of the present four years, (from 1825 ;) for iu 
him is the only hope left of avoiding the dangers mani- 
festly about to arise out of the broad construction now 
again given to the constitution of the United States, which 
effaces all limitations of power, and leaves the general 
government, by theory, altogether unrestrained." They 
should have remembered the character ascribed to him by 
James Monroe, " a man fit for any emergency ; a states- 
man, cool and dispassionate; a soldier, terrible in battle, 
and mild in victory ; a patriot whose bosom swelled with 
the love of country ; in fine, a man whose like we shall 
scarce look upon again." They should have remembered 
that from the path of duty, he never turned aside ; for this 
they knew, not only from his history, but from the testi- 
mony of the Massachusetts statesman, John duincy Ad- 
ams. " General Jackson justly enjoys in an eminent de- 
gree the public favor," said the late President ; " and of 
his worth, talents, and services, no one entertains a higher 



SflO THE TRUIi AMERICAN. 

or more respectable opinion, than myself." " An officer 
whose services entitle him to the highest rewards, and 
whose whole career has been signalized by the purest in- 
tentions, and most elevated purposes." They should have 
remembered that so unquestionable were these virtues as 
to extort from an envious rival, Henry Clay, professions 
of admiration. " Towards that distinguished captain, 
who has shed so much glory on our country, whose re- 
nown constitutes so great a portion of its moral property, 
I never had," said the western orator, " I never can have, 
any other feelings than those of profound respect, and of 
the utmost kindness." They should have remembered, 
that, at the age of thirty, a senator in Congress, when the 
latitudinarian expositions of the federalists were breaking 
down the landmarks of the constitution, and consolida- 
ting the states into one sovereignty, Andrew Jackson was 
found on the side of those republican principles peculiar 
to America, and essential to her liberty ; and that ever 
since that time he has been a firm, consistent, and unwa- 
vering democrat ; and then they could never have doubt- 
ed that the anticipations of Mr. Jefferson would be real- 
ized, that the fate of the bank was sealed by his election, 
and that the renovation of the constitution was to be the 
last herculean task of Andrew Jackson. The task was 
his, and he was equal to its accomplishment. 

This brave and wise old man, whom king-loathed Co- 
lumbia has so long delighted to honor, has reached the 
goal at which his patriotic labors terminate. Having 
filled full the measure of his country's glory, covered with 
the laurels of martial and of civic triumph, rich in the 
gratitude of millions redeemed from the scourge of mo- 
nopoly, and cheered by the hope that the blessings he has 
won for his country may be perpetual as the love of free- 
dom in the hearts of Americans, there is still in store for 
him a higher and purer enjoyment than any of these. 
When his long career of public duty has been finished, 
and he seeks the peaceful Hermitage, to dedicate to need- 
ed and wished-for repose the evening of his days, with 
what tranquil satisfaction may he look back upon the 
many, the weighty, and the lasting services, which a be- 
nignant Providence has made him the chosen instrument 



ADDRESS TO VOtNO MEN. 961 

to render to this Heaven-protected iiatiou ! With what 
delightl'ul consciousness may he reflect upon tlie faithful 
performance of the vast obligations devolving on such a 
man, upon the good use which he has made of the many 
talents wherewith God has gifted him, upon the large 
part allotted to him, in the wide sphere of action in 
which he has moved, done — all done — and well done! 
Fortunate soldier, statesman, patriot, and philanthropist! 
You have defended our soil from invasion, restored our 
violated constitution, disarmed and prostrated the most 
dangerous foe of our liberties, brought a whole great 
people by your judicious policy into a palmy state of 
prosperity never known before, and by the successful is- 
sue of an honest and straight-forward course of plain 
dealing, have demonstrated to mankind that the same 
principles of morality and honor may govern, and ought 
to govern, the intercourse of n^Uions, which regulate and 
dictate our conduct in our individual relations. The 
bright example of the republic over which you preside 
has penetrated the darkness that so long has brooded over 
the old world. It towers and glows, refulgent and beau- 
tiful, a beacon-light to the tempest -tost pilgrims of liberty, 
kindled late, but shining far through the pervading gloom 
of transntlantic tyranny, reviving dying hope even in the 
bosom of despair. Self-government is no longer a vi- 
sionarv dream. Republics no longer tend irresistibly to 
consolidation and despotism. A truly Roman energy 
has thwarted and turned back that tendency, and has re- 
instated the constitution in its primitive purity, with its 
original vigor, but without the superadded and unnatural 
impetus which would have drawn every thing into its vor- 
tex, or else have torn it asunder by the increasing violence 
of its own motions. 

Through what a series of toils, and perils, and vicissi- 
tudes have you reached the crowning period of your life, 
when your opposers looked up to you, with the same con- 
fidence as your friends, to vindicate, as you always have 
vindicated, and always will vindicate, our insulted honor. 
The country knew that its honor was safe, for it remem- 
bered your declaration, " the honor of my country shall 
never be tarnished in my hands," and it had the sure 
31 



562 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

guaranty of your life and character, before tliat emphatic 
sentence was uttered. The almost unanimous election 
which placed you for a second term in the presidential 
chair, has been followed by an approbation of your ad- 
ministration, and in your retirement from office you re- 
ceive that universal respect and affection, of which the 
world has seen but one illustrious instance, in the person 
of your earliest predecessor. 

Fortunate to have run this unexampled, this wonderful 
career ! beyond the eight hundred millions of your con- 
temporaries most fortunate ! Fortunate beyond compari- 
son in the varied annals of history ! beyond comparison 
save one, for between Jackson and Washington how close 
is the parallel. 

To the heroes of the first and second war of independ- 
ence, it was equally objected, that their early education 
had been in some degree defective. As if every man of 
genius did not educate himself, in maturer life, for what- 
ever of duty devolved upon him ; as if both were not well 
versed in practical politics, familiar with public affairs as 
with the air they breathed ; and as if that were not a well- 
known truth which the elder Adams remarked in his 
Defence of the American Constitutions, " Knowledge is 
by no means necessarily connected with wisdom or vir- 
tue." But these charges had little weight with the sober 
sense of the American people, who formed a correct 
estimate of the genius of each, notwithstanding the efforts 
of their revilers. 

That Washington was what is called a self-made man, 
is well known to us all, yet Washington was pronounced 
by Patrick Henry, on his return from Congress in 1774, 
to be the greatest man for information and judgment in 
that body. That Jackson has been emphatically the arti- 
ficer of his own fortunes is equally undeniable. He has 
built up his enviable and surpassing fame, not by the aid 
of family connections, hereditary wealth, or favorable 
opportunities ; but in despite of adverse circumstances, 
and inveterate opposition. The man in abuse of whom 
the powers of language have been daily exhausted, for 
some years ; on whom has been lavished, without stint, 
the whole vocabulary of envy, wrath, malice, and all un- 



ADDRESS TO YOUXG MEN. 363 

charitableness, having been honored with the confidence 
of every President, from Washington down to his own 
immediate predecessor, has three times received far the 
largest number of votes for the highest office in the gift 
of the people ; and has twice been called, by an over- 
whelming majority of suffrages, to fill the presidential 
chair, thereby evincing that he possessed " the unbound- 
ed confidence and expectation of the nation," of which 
the ballot box is the only sure test. 

By his own unaided merit has he risen to that broad 
eminence. Having seen his only brother perish by the 
cruelty of the enemy, in the war of the revolution, and 
his broken-hearted mother follow her son to the grave, he 
went alone, friendless and pennyless, from his native state 
to Tennessee, where he had not a single blood relation, 
and when scarcely mure than a boy, we find him selected 
to assist in framing a constitution for that state, a mem- 
ber of the first legislature of Tennessee; selected by 
Washington, endowed like himself with a wonderful sa- 
gacity in the discrimination of character, for the re- 
sponsible office of district attorney; soon after delegated 
among the first representatives in Congress from the state 
of Tennessee, and as soon as he was constitutionally eli- 
gible, being only thirty years of age, he was placed in the 
Senate of the United States. This post he soon after re- 
signed, but he could not be suffered to remain in retire- 
ment, and he was almost immediately appointed judge of 
the Supreme Court of that state. 

In this early and rapid promotion of a friendless stran- 
ger, we may see the evidence of talents for civil service, 
for he was not yet a military chieftain ; and it was the 
ability evinced in these situations, which led, no doubt, 
to his military appointment during this period as major- 
general, commanding the militia of Tennessee, and af- 
terwards to be major-general in the United States service. 

In times of extreme difficulty and imminent danger, 
if there be among the citizens a spirit cast in nature's 
noblest mould, and fully equal to the exigency, the coun- 
try turns her eyes at once to him. History has recorded 
how Washington was summoned by the spontaneous voice 
of the people to conduct to an honorable close the war 



liiii VUr. TRt'K AMERICAN. 

of the revolution. His accomplishment of the trust 
justified their confidence, and crowned his fame with lau- 
rels which time cannot wither. So it was, within our 
memory, with our own Jackson. 

The youth who had discharged with honor the import- 
ant trusts enumerated, wns destined to be recalled from 
the retirement which he loved, and which he had sought, 
to perform for his country services both civil and milita- 
ry, which were essential to her salvation, and which per- 
haps no other man in the nation could have performed. 
Governor Brooks, a staunch federalist as he was, but a 
soldier and a man of honor, whatever might be his im- 
pressions of the commencement of the war, surrender- 
ing party bigotry to honest national pride, frankly ac- 
knowledged, " that it terminated gloriously. " Both 
branches of the legislature of Massachusetts — ay, FED- 
ERAL MASSACHUSETTS— voted the thanks of the 
commonwealth to the successful general', a testimony no 
less creditable to themselves than to him. 

A vast plan of invasion sketched by military genius, and 
begun to be executed with a boldness that did not dream 
of defeat, by solid columns of picked men, from the vete- 
rans of more than twenty years' warfare ; officered by the 
tiower of British chivalry ; led by generals of undoubted 
talent, tried valor, and consummate skill ; trained to con- 
quer, and exulting in their anticipated success, on the 
eighth of January, eighteen hundred and fiiteen, receiv- 
ed from Andrew Jackson's arm its fatal check, its final 
wreck, and total overthrow\ " Never were greater ex- 
pectations formed, and never were anticipations more ex- 
ceeded than in this event. The greatness of the victory 
was not incredible, from the iiubaundcd confidence and 
expectation of thf nation. But even what at first might 
seem exaggerated praise, was found, from the dispassion- 
ate history of the conqueror, far short of the unrivalled 
glory of the event. The Hero is immortal, and our 

COUNTRY HAS THE I51.ESSINO." 

Our two great commanders had not only the same suc- 
cess in bringing the respective wars triumphantly to a 
close, but their success was mainly owing to the same 
cause ; thev had both learned the same wisdom in the 



AHDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 365 

same school of suffering, the school of Indian warfare. 
It was in this that they were trained to arms, and taught 
that ever-watchful circumspection, prudence in council 
with energy in action, which they both exhibited through- 
out their whole career, and which occasioned " the un- 
bounded confidence and expectation of the nation " to 
concentrate itself upon them. So implicit was the reli- 
ance on the Western Hero, that its influence extended 
even to the other side the Atlantic. When Gouldbourn, 
the British commissioner at Ghent, remarked, " by this 
time New Orleans is ours;" Henry Clay could boldly an- 
swer, for he knew the man, " No : New Orleans is safe : 
Andrew Jackson is there." 

The two military chieftains dismissed from the toils of 
war, longed eagerly for retirement. Their country still 
had claims upon them, claims which none but they could 
satisfy. 

Twice we have been rescue-? from danger, by these 
two patriot heroes, both strong in the unbounded confi- 
dence of the people, both enjoying that confidence from 
the same causes, both using it in the same way and for 
the same ends, both eclipsing the lustre of their military 
glory, by the brighter glory of their civic fame, and both 
embalming the memory of their greatness in the applause, 
the gratitude and devotion of tlieir contemporaries, who 
witnessed the salvation of their country, and of all pos- 
terity who shall inherit the legacy of the free institutions 
which their hands established and perpetuated. 

Since its origin, with the exception of a particular in- 
terval, the action of the general government has been 
constantly and irresistibly enlarging itself The ominous 
progress of this series of encroachments upon our liber- 
ties, becQming every day more rapid, could only be ar- 
rested by a man possessing a personal popularity second 
to none since Washington, and disposed to use the power 
which his hold on the hearts of his fellow-citizens gave 
him, to reform the corruptions of the government, and to 
restore it to its original purity. 

Fortunately for us, the times which required, as before, 
produced that man. Respected for his talents and energy 
of character, and trusted for his integrity and the sound-? 
31* 



360 THE TKUE AMERICAN. 

ness of his political views ; illustrious for the crowning 
victory of tlie last war, which obliterated the memory of 
many defeats, and outshone our other numerous victories ; 
having on a former occasion received a plurality of elect- 
oral votes, he was at last called by an overwheiming ma- 
jority of suffrages to fill the presidential chair. Unap- 
palled by the difficulty of the task, he proceeded steadily 
to his great purpose, and obstacles seemingly insurmount- 
able gave way before him. The growth of deep-rooted 
abuses was stayed at once, and he exerted all his sagacity 
and decision to eradicate them from our system. His 
reforms in office reduced to practice the gre:it truth, that 
place-men are not possessors of office for their own emo- 
lument, but holders of a trust to be administered fjr the 
benefit of the people ; and in every department, method, 
order, punctuality, and economy superseded negligence, 
carelessness, procrastination, and prodigality. 

In his intercourse with foreign nations, he built upon 
the foundition of national policy laid by Washington, 
" the immutable principles of private morality," — pro- 
claiming it at the outset as a fundamental rule of his con- 
duct, " to ask nothing but what was clearly right, and to 
submit to nothing that was wrong." To this golden rule 
he unilterably adhered, and " the smiles of Heaven have 
abundantly approved his honest and magnanimous policy." 
His frank and manly advances to otiier governments met 
a ready and a cordial reception, and obtained for his 
country advantages which the tortuous diplomacy of for- 
mer administrations either dared not attempt, or attempt- 
ed in vain. 

Though holding the highest place in the affections of 
the western states, he dared to put his veto upon the log- 
rolling system of corruption, which threatened to make 
Congress an exchange, where political brokers should be 
sent to barter money laid out and expended for promotion 
had and received. By this bold act he put a stop to the 
squandering of the millions on millions of treasure an- 
nually drained from the seaboard, and applied our supera- 
bundant resources to the payment of the national debt, 
which he was thus enabled to cancel ; and those who pre- 
dicted that the revenue would " fall short one half, or at 



ADDRESS TO YOUAii MEN. 3^7 

least one third," had no other ground of complaint left 
than the rapid accumulation of surplus funds in the trea- 
sury. Yet the taxes of the people have been diminished 
to the amount of more than two hundred millions of 
dollars. 

The system of unequal taxation, of pampering the 
producers of a particular article, who are few, at the cost 
of the consumers, who are many, has been a fruitful 
source of misery in most of the civilized nations of mo- 
dern times. After it had become the object of the ab- 
horrence of the friends of freedom every where else, it 
was introduced, chierty under the auspices of Mr. Clay, 
into the United States. The tariff of 1828, justly styled 
by Mr. Webster " a bill of abominations," carried this 
system to its height, and the consequent reaction at the 
south brought into jeopardy our Union and republican 
institutions ; and there, were those at the north who pro- 
mulgated the unchristian sentiment, " our danger lies in 
concession," while the dogs of war, almost loosed from 
their leash, already seemed to snuff the blood of brethren. 
But the administration had taken for its motto, "The fe- 
deral Union, it must be preserved :" concession v/as made, 
liberal concession, though the Catiiines preferred disu- 
nion, civil war, and anarchy to concession. We have 
steered clear of the rocks and quicksands that beset us, 
and in spite of the conspiring mutineers that would have 
run her on a lee shore, that they might take command of 
the wreck and parcel out the plunder, the ship of state 
stands steadily on her proud course, — thanks to the firm 
hand that never let go the helm. May a thousand ages 
roll away before our country is again environed with 
perils imminent as she then escaped! Her escape she 
owes, under God, to the far-seeing wisdom and unwaver- 
ing patriotism which presided over her destinies — a states- 
manship which will couple his name with that of Wash- 
ington in the memory of our remotest posterity. 

When Andrew Jackson was first elected to the Presi- 
dency of these United States, we knew his patriotism and 
appreciated his talents ; but who could then have antici- 
pated the crisis which would put in requisition all his pa- 
triotism and all his talents ? Eighteen long years before, 



30S THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

he had glory enough for one man, but now his cup is 
filled to overflowing. 

Each of the hero Presidents received the sanction of 
the approbation of his fellow-citizens, after his system of 
administration had been distinctly developed, by a re-» 
election for a second term of service with a high degree 
of unanimity. And as if to carry out and complete the 
parallel, each during his second term found himself ha- 
rassed by the embarrassing nature of our relations with 
France. Both alike maintained an independent attitude 
towards that power, both commanded her respect ; and 
the voice of congratulation rising from the whole continent 
witnessed the universal satisfaction with which America 
welcomed the final adjustment of the difficulties. 

" Sir," said one of his ablest opponents, Edward Eve- 
rett of Massachusetts, " if the President will so temper 
his policy as to carry this country honorably through the 
controversy without a war, he will draw down upon his 
head the blessings of men whose voices have never min- 
gled with the incense of his flatterers ; and his name in 
the eyes of all mankind and of an impartial posterity, 
will appear fairer and brighter than when he came out 
from the blazing lines of New Orleans, in ail the fresh* 
ness of his victory, and its honors !" 

The great events in which he has been concerned are 
justly ascribed to his personal agency. The purity of 
his intentions, and his elevated purposes are attested by 
his immediate predecessor, and now that the hoarse roar 
of party animosity is hushed, no voice is heard to impeach 
them. 

The state papers of the first administration were nu- 
merous, highly important and much admired ; and the 
farewell address is among the richest of the legacies of 
wisdom which we inherit from the revolutionary worthies. 
The state papers of the last and present administration 
will suffer nothing by the comparison. The Maysville 
Road Bill Veto — the Bank Veto — the Proclamation — the 
views of the President read to the cabinet on the 18th 
of September, 1833 — the Protest — the several messages, 
pspecially those on the Bank and the French affairs — the 
farewell Address and Message at the special session, have 



AltDRESS TO YOt'Mi Mi:\. DOt* 

been a New Orleans batter}' of heavy ojdntiuce — l!i<^ 
close columns of the. British party have never been alile 
to make head against' them. 

America might be supposed a partial judge of the fame 
of her favorites — but we find them respected abroad no 
less highly than at home. The champion of the rights 
of juries at the English bar, the great master of forensic 
eloquence, confessed that he stood in awe of Washing- 
ton. The prime minister of the most liberal administra- 
tion Great Britain has ever yet seen, pronounced Jackson 
to be the first of American statesmen. Already a trans- 
atlantic reputation, which no one living, save himself, can 
claim, associates his name with that of Washington, and 
anticipates the sure award of coming generations. 

These illustrious pioneers of genuine independence 
have, by their whole career of arduous service well re- 
warded, demonstrated the proposition, that the American 
people will sustain the statesman who maintains Ameri- 
can principles ; and that nothing can be more grateful 
to their feelings, than whatever is pertectly suited to our 
own institutions, character, and situation ; free, equal, 
liberal, and manly. 

Our ship of state navigates no j^acific ocean; she rides 
the stormy billows of liberty. Give her sea room enough, 
and she rides secure, and defies the fury of embattled 
winds. Hidden perils only can endanger her safety. 
Treacherous insects have been at work m the unseen 
depths ; slowly and long have the coral reefs been rising; 
if treason takes the heha a moirent, she strikes, and all 
hope is lost. But the ever-w- 'chful eye of our experi- 
enced pilot, wise in counsel, resolute in action, sagacious 
amid difficulties, and unshaken by the terrors of the cri- 
sis, has already descried the course through which her 
passage opens ; she leaves de.-trnction behind, and goes 
bounding on her glorious way, a home of life, and joy, and 
confidence, freighted with the welfare of a nation, and 
cheered by the admiration of a world. 

The great dividing line between our parties originally 
was, generally has been, and for the most part uill be, be- 
tween the friends of arbitrary power on the one hand, 
and the friends of constitutioual freedom on t!!<» otlier — 



370 THE TRUE AMERtCAN. 

between those who wish, by wholesome limitations origi- 
nally imposed, and by a strict construction of them, to 
confine governments to the few objects which have been 
specified, and to leave the people otherwise individually 
free to govern themselves, and those who by a lavish 
grant of power originally, and a broad latitude of inter- 
pretation, and a free use of implication afterwards, would 
enable the government to control and regulate every ac- 
tion, and would make it, in fine, a mere engine for the 
aggrandizement of the few at the expense of the many, 
like every other government upon the face of the globe. 
The first constitute the democratic or constitutional party, 
the latter are the aristocratic or consolidationist party, 
who seem to be governed by British rather than American 
principles. 

The aristocratic party seem never to have abandoned 
the doctrine that the people could not safely be trusted 
with political power. They consider the popular will too 
sandy a foundation to uphold the structure of governr 
ment. For this reason, after fiiiling in the attempt to 
establish a government whose leading features should be 
a President to serve during good behavior — a Senate to 
serve during good behavior, and to have the sole poicer 
of declaring war — the Governor of each state to be ap- 
pointed by the federal head, and to have a negative on 
ihe laws of the state — they set about building a consoli- 
dated government under the forms of a democratic conr 
stitution. In many respects the attempt has been alarm- 
ingly successful. One who observes the little considera- 
tion which the states now command, and how completely 
the central government absorbs and draws into its vortex 
every interest and all ambition, cannot but feel some mis- 
givings lest the states may have committed the same fatal 
error in consenting to the federal government, which the 
forest committed in giving the axe wood enough to fur- 
nish a handle. Such misgivinos would have been but too 
well founded, had not the Roman energy of Andrew Jack- 
son arrested, before it was too late, the progress of con- 
solidation, and redressed the wrongs of the violated con- 
stitution. 

There was but one resource for the preservation of the 



ADDRESS TO TOUNG MEN, 371 

constitution, and that was an energetic, democratic chief 
magistrate. Providence, which in great perils, raises up 
great deliverers, has given us the man. He fulfilled his 
destiny, and routed the consolidationists as effectually as 
he did their British friends at New Orleans. 

The whig champion of the constitution, Daniel Web- 
ster, explained to the world his notions of the nature of 
government, in his speech in the Massachusetts conven- 
tion against basing the senate on population, and in favor 
of the basis of icealth. " It would seem," said that gen- 
tleman, " to be the part of political wisdom TO FOUND 
GOVERNiMENT ON PROPERTY"—" property being 
the true basis and measure of power." He maintains that 
a government founded on property, is legitimately founded, 
and that a government founded on the disregard of pro- 
perty, IS FOUNDED IN INJUSTICE. These purely 
British notions come quite up to Mr. Jefferson's idea of 
the " splendid government of an aristocracy." Such a 
government would be very certain to take care of the rich, 
and let the rich take care of the poor, in whatever way 
might suit their own interest. No wonder that a states- 
man holding such principles should desire to build up 
our house of lords into an irresponsible oligarchy, ca- 
pable of controlling every other branch of the govern- 
ment. No wonder that he should look with peculiar favor 
upon every British feature in our institutions, and that he 
should aim especially to make a national bank the 
main pillar of that government, which he thinks it " the 
part of political wisdom to found on property." 

The democratic party, on the other hand, holds fast 
those purely American principles which have already been 
described Again and again have they been put forward 
as our distinguishing doctrines, and it is upon the faithful- 
ness with which they have supported and applied these 
doctrines, that those who stand foremost in our ranks 
must rest their claims to public confidence. As no man 
has practically illustrated this creed more consistently or 
with happier effect than our late chief magistrate, so no man 
has given the theory a more beautiful expression. "The 
ambition which leads me on" — these were the words of 
that venerated patriot, uttered upon a memorable occasion, 



TUi: TRIE AMEEICAN. 

with that noble frankness which only conscious rectitude 
could inspire — " the ambition which leads me on is an 
anxious desire and a fixed determination, to return to the 
people, unimpaired, the sacred trust they have committed 
to my charge — to heal the wounds of the constitution, 
and preserve it from further violation ; to persuade my 
countrymen, so far as T may, that it is not in a splendid 
government, supported by powerful mono])olies and aris- 
tocratic establishments, that they will find happiness or 
their liberties protection, but in a plain system, void of 
pomp, — protecting all, and granting favors to none — dis- 
pensing its blessings like tin: dews of heaven, unseen and 
nnfelt save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to 
produce. If the Almighty Being, who has hitherto sus- 
tained and protected me, will but vouchsafe to make my 
feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall anti- 
pate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in the 
history of my country, and die contented with the belief 
that I have contributed, in some small degree, to increase 
the value and prolong the duration of American liberty." 
To increase the value and prolong the duration of 
American liberty, there are three essential requisites — a 
strict observance of its sacred charter the constitution, 
the supremacy of the laws under the constitution, and the 
preservation of the federal Union. If the constitution 
should be violated by the adoption of the whig policy, of 
plundering the many to pamper the few, consolidation 
would either bring on the dead calm of despotism, or 
provoke a tempest of resistance, ending in revolution. 
If the laws may with impiniity be set at defiance, either 
by a corporation exalting itself above law, and gathering 
its strength to break down our constituted authorities ; 
or by a band of factious demagogues, disappointed, re- 
vengeful, and disorganizing; or by seditious mobs insti- 
gated to violence and outrage by the incendiary harangues 
of the Catilines who preach j)anic, create distress, 
and cry to arms, because they would willingly welcome 
war, pestilence, and famine, rather than endure the pre- 
valence of democracy — in either case, anarchy, misrule 
and civil discord would stalk through the land. If bold 
bad men, struggling to pull down the virtue they cannot 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 373 

rise to emulate, should burst asunder the bands of our 
national Union, the days of our independence would soon 
be numbered, and liberty could not hope to survive. These 
three fundamental truths, the President, in his usual com- 
prehensive and emphatic language, has condensed into 
an aphorism— " The CONSTITUTION and the LAWS 

ARE SUPREME, AND THE UNION INDISSOLUBLE." 

This grand and simple annunciation of democratic 
doctrine would have been a mere form of words without 
meaning, if their author had not redressed the first and 
most fearful infraction of the constitution. The duty 
of the administration, as to this point, was fully expressed 
in the sentiment of Mr. Van Buren — "Unqualified and 
uncompromising opposition to the Bank of the United 
States. The interest and the honor of the people de- 
mand it." 

No one that knew the bold heart and the firm hand 
that guided the helm of state could doubt for a moment 
that the interest and the honor of the people were safe. 
The opinion of the early friend of Washington, the 
adopted child of America, the apostle of universal liber- 
ty, the lamented of both worlds, the great and gooi> 
La Fayette, was also the opinion of the democrats of 
America, as 219 electoral votes bestowed upon the author 
of the Bank Veto, against the 49 votes of the bank or 
whig party, may amply testify. The illustrious worthy,, 
La Fayette, shortly before he closed his sublunary pilgrim- 
age, and went joyfully to receive the reward of a long 
life of suffering, toil and virtue, expressed himself in 
words which ought to be forever remembered. 

" General Jackson is the very man fitted for the present 
crisis" — said that keen, judicious and experienced obser- 
ver of human character. " His stern and uncompromi- 
sing republicanism, and high sense of honor, will prove 
the best security for our republican institutions — (for he 
calls every thing American his own.) For a long time I 
saw with pain the advances of an aristocratic moneyed 
institution, which threatened to cast a poisonous mildew 
over our precious liberties. They would have rendered 
our fair country a passive instrument in their hands, in 
which case freedom would have vanished from among us. 
32 



374 THE TRUK AMERICAN. 

General Jackson possesses the honesty of a Regulus, the 
patriotism of a Washington, and the firmness of a Tirao- 
leon — in fact, I am unacquainted with any character in 
ancient or modern history, which combines so much ex- 
cellence with so few of the errors of humanity." 

The champions of the paper power had strong hopes 
at this time, that the bank leviathan in his fury would 
rend and tear the constituted authority of the nation, 
which had put a hook in his nose, and re&trained the su- 
perfluity of his naughtiness. But in this, as in all other 
cases, whenever the aristocratic party have congratulated 
themselves that democracy had taken the fatal step, had 
plunged itself into an abyss from which it could never 
rise, behold it standing on firmer ground than ever. 
When they look for its disastrous eclipse, it shines out 
brighter than ever. When they look for its final downfall, 
behold it towering more secure and lofty, in the esteem 
and affection of a whole people, smiling at the impotent 
malice of the billows of wrath that lash the foot of the 
adamantine rock of truth whereon it stands. In 1832, 
loud and long was the anthem of joy from the whole host 
of mammon. The recoil of the veto had prostrated old 
Hickory ! The veto strengthened him. In 1833, his popu- 
larity was unbounded. We saw the aristocracy of the 
city of Boston welcome the old hero with the homage of 
the heart — for it could not have been all mere lip service. 
We heard them send up the universal shout that almost 
rent the blue concave. We saw them thronging his anti- 
chamber — besieging his bed-chamber — scarcely leaving 
uninvaded his refuge on the couch of sickness ; so eager 
were they to pour into his ear the testimony of their re- 
spect, their gratitude, and their love. Our ancient uni- 
versity of Harvard bestowed her highest honors upon her 
illustrious visitor, thereby honoring herself more than she 
honored him. And at Bunker Hill, the scene of the first 
great battle in the long struggle with British power which 
he himself had closed so gloriously at New Orleans, one 
of our most eloquent orators exhausted the language of 
panegyric to do justice to his virtues and his valor. King- 
loathed Columbia's brave and wise old man cannot have 
been, at that time, the object of the hatred of any citizen. 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 375 

We have no bold, bad men, no senators, like Catiline, 
the Roman senator, when he aspired to the consulship, 
striving to pull down the virtue they cannot rise to emu- 
late. Thousands witnessed the affection, it might almost 
be said the adoration, which the whigs of Boston mani- 
fested in 1833, for the defender and restorer of the con- 
stitution, and since that time he has done much to 
strengthen their devotion, having fairly subdued that 
deadly enemy, the United States Bank monopoly. 

Yet, in 1834, the dupes of federal delusion were again 
on tiptoe with glad expectation. Nicholas Biddle and 
the hero were in their death grapple. Nicholas will 
throttle him, was the cry of the Biddleites. But it proved 
to be the dying convulsion of the monster. That strug- 
gle and its issue have beon grossly misrepresented, but 
history and posterity will set the matter right, all over 
the world. 

History and posterity will say that Andrew Jackson, 
by loosening the hold which the bank had on the go- 
vernment and on the people, was enabled to bid defiance 
to its arts and power, to defeat its onset to reconquer us 
and subject us anew to its detested sway ; and that he 
thereby restored to its original pristine purity the violated 
constitution of the United States. 

Do we not remember the endless catalogue of whig 
victories in 1834, the tens of thousands of new-made 
whig converts in almost every state in the Union, that 
for a few short months delighted whig credulity? And 
do we" not remember that in 1835 the administration was 
stronger than ever 1 So mote it be ! So will it be now. 
The dark clouds that sheltered the dim-eyed owls and 
bats of whig delusion are fast dissipating before the re- 
fulgence of truth, and in brief space the glorious sun of 
democracy will burst upon their gaze in dazzling splen- 
dor, clear and unspotted as the sun of Austerlitz. 

A bold, just, and consistent course is the only safe 
policy for an individual, or for a government, whatever 
hoarse clamors of prejudice or howling tempests of fac- 
tion may rage around you. It is as true that there is 
no safety in cowardice, as that there is no peace for the 



376 TUB TRUE AMERICAN. 

wicked. The administration knows this truth, and it 
will push onward, and right on. 

There is practically but one great question now before 
the people. It is whether they will go back to the sys- 
tem of consolidation, and in a few years time make their 
government equivalent to a monarchy, with a house of 
lords, and an overruling money power. All who oppose 
the independent treasury desire to re-establish the Uni- 
ted States Bank, for there is no other alternative. With 
a bank would come also the bank policy, an assumption 
of state debts to the amount of two hundred millions, 
internal improvements like the projected road from Buf- 
falo to New Orleans, and the projects to cost a hundred 
millions, which were prostrated by the Maysville Veto. 
To support this monstrous system, heavy taxes, like the 
bill of abominations of 1828, must again be levied on us, 
the millstone again be hung upon the neck of commerce, 
and the two hundred millions of duties from which we 
have been relieved since General Jackson's election would 
again be imposed, ay, and augmented. This combina- 
tion of measures would double or treble the revenue, the 
expenses, and the patronage of the general government, 
and in the host of additional office holders, and contract- 
ors, and the perpetual millions lavished in the log-rolling 
system would be found an inexhaustible source of influ- 
ence and fund of corruption. 

Those who aim to introduce a strong government, de- 
sire to make use of its powers, as the aristocracy of all 
old nations have done, to direct to their own reservoirs 
those innumerable, minute streams of wealth, which, un- 
der the equalizing influence of freedom, diffuse a general 
fertility over the whole surface of society. Though these 
ulterior designs may never be rc;!lized, and in their full 
extent never can be without a revolution more terrible 
than any yet recorded in history, still it will be the part 
of wisdom to understand precisely the end they have in 
view. The perilous progress towards consolidation was 
indeed appalling, and the firmest friends of their country 
had begun to apprehend that it was irresistible, when it 
encountered an obstacle which neither force nor craft 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 377 

could remove, nor seduction, intrigue, or intimidation 
overcome. The old Roman vigor, incorruptible integrity, 
and austere probity of Andrew Jackson, sternly rejecting 
the immense accession of executive influence and patron- 
age which an infatuated opposition never ceased for a 
moment to urge upon him, turned back the current of 
federal encroachment, and restored, before it was too 
late, the violated constitution to its original purity. Dur- 
ing his career as chief magistrate, the world beheld for 
the first time the astonishing spectacle, which, unless 
human nature be wholly regenerated it will seldom wit- 
ness again, of an administration, which voluntarily, and 
in defiance of the bitterest opposition, in defiance of re- 
proaches, threats, and maledictions, diminished its own 
revenue ; lightened, by refusing income offered and al- 
most forced into its hands, the burdens of the people; 
cut off" and cast from it the strongest means of influence ; 
lessened the number of its powers; narrowed the limits 
of its action ; and not only restrained itself from corrup- 
tion and abuses, to which its enemies invited it, but re- 
moved to the utmost of its capacity, the possibility of 
abuses and corruption hereafter. The overthrow and 
ruin of that administration were confidently predicted if it 
should dare persist to follow the self-denying path of duty. 
Truly formidable was the combination of learning, and 
talent, and wealth, and weight of authority enlisted against 
it ; fearful was the conflict, and doubtful for a while 
seemed the issue. But the hero who filled the post of 
danger had adopted the maxim of Metellus, whom, in un- 
bending fortitude and umblemished virtue, he most re- 
sembled. " If it were always safe to do right, who would 
ever do wrong 1 It is the part of good men to do that 
which is right, even when least for their safety." He 
was ready therefore to take the responsibility of fulfilling 
the oath he had sworn, of maintaining the constitution 
of his country, and of seeing that her laws should be 
faithfully executed. Andrew Jackson had made an ex- 
periment some years before at New Orleans. He had 
tried, and knew the effect of a well-directed energy in 
scattering the solid columns of British veterans, officered 
by choice scions of British nobility. He was not there- 
32* 



378 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

fore to be driven from his purpose by the most deter- 
mined onset of whatever array of British principles, Bri- 
tish precedents, and British interests, the whole British 
party in these United States could marshal against 
him. He proceeded steadily in the work of reform. 
God speed the right, was the fervent prayer of every 
true-hearted patriot, every honest statesman, every wise 
philanthropist in the world. That prayer was accepted. 
The enemies of our liberty rushed upon him in mad fury, 
to hurl him from his station. Like the unclouded sum- 
mit of a lofty mountain, against whose base the storms 
spend their vain rage, he stood unshaken, above the 
whirlwind of passions that threatened the overthrow of 
our social institutions. Where now are his assailants? 
Shall I say, a Waterloo defeat awaited them? Our 
language furnishes an expression somewhat more em-^ 
phatical. A New Orleans defeat annihilated them. The 
British bank is bankrupt. The British system of restric- 
tion is abandoned. Unconstitutional taxation is disa- 
vowed. New England cannot be assessed to tunnel the 
AUeghanies. The traitors who deserted the cause of 
their country in the hour of her peril, have sunk into con- 
genial oblivion. The tenant of the throne of Napoleon 
has redressed the wrongs of his predecessor. The last 
remnant of the system of consolidation has disappeared, 
and neither from discontent and division at home, nor 
through aggression from abroad, can any opportunity now 
be anticipated to restore its hated sway. The consolida^ 
tionists are completely consolidated. 

Since their last catastrophe in the election of Mr. Van 
Buren there has been no hope for them. They indeed 
did make a desperate plunge to recover the public favor 
when they brought about the suspension of specie pay- 
ments in 1837, and falsely attributed that calamity to the 
administration. 

The suspension of specie payments having been natu- 
rally brought about by the paper-money party, by their 
unprecedented overbanking and consequent speculation, 
having been precipitated by their favorite measure, the 
distribution, having been recommended by them long be- 
fore it happened, justified by them ever since, and profit- 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 

able to them wliile it lasts, is the appropriate consummation 
of the whig policy upon the subject of the currency. By 
a currency of irredeemable paper the many are made to 
pay tribute to the few. The aristocracy, who in all coun- 
tries desire to enrich themselves out of the taxes of the 
people, make it an engine of taxation. 

The people suffer by the depreciation of the bills in 
their hands. The speculator in beef, pork, flour, or cot- 
ton, buys up these bills at a large discount, and pays 
them into the bank, in discharge of his obligations, at par. 

Though the Great Regulator of the currency, the 
United States Bank, failed with the rest, and is now more 
hopelessly insolvent than almost any other engine of fraud 
in the country, still a large class of mercantile men la- 
mented its downfall, and preposterously prayed for its 
impossible restoration to soundness and health. The 
merchants doing a moderate business would be crushed 
and ground into the dust beneath the wheels of this pon- 
derous engine, as so many thousands of their predecessors 
have been, yet many of them are still ready to cast them- 
selves before the car of Juggernaut, at the bidding of their 
political priesthood, and perish for the glory of the money 
king. They are as much incensed against the govern- 
ment which has delivered them from their opppressor, 
as the Hindoos are with the government of India for its 
efforts to suppress the Thugs. 

This class of incurables, though their numbers daily 
diminish, and their wailing cry grows fainter and fainter, 
have wickedly, as well as stupidly, charged upon the de- 
mocratic party the consequences of the paper-money poli- 
cy. The absurdity is too gross to influence an intelligent 
people, arid indeed the hard-cider party have long since 
ceased to make any appeal to intelligence. 

Did the administration advise the rechartering of the 
United States Bank by Pennsylvania ? Did the administra- 
tion advise that the number of banks, the amount of bank 
capital, of loans, and of paper circulation should be more 
than doubled, nay, almost trebled, within six years? Did 
the administration urge the banks to issue more notes 
than they could redeem ; the merchants to import more 
than they could pay for ; and to supply the retailers with 



380 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

more goods than they could dispose of? Did it instigate 
thousands of young men to abandon the cuhivation of 
the soil and throng to the great cities, to embark in the 
lottery of trade ? Did it run up the prices of articles 
of commerce ? Did it encourage speculators to invest 
immense amounts in fancy stocks, in products, house 
lots, and public lands? Did it recommend the distribu- 
tion bill, to withdraw, in four payments, near forty mil- 
lions from the channels of commerce ? Did it advise the 
borrowing of two hundred millions abroad? Did it ad- 
vise the United States Bank to buy up the cotton crop of 
the country on speculation, to involve itself with monopo- 
lizers of flour, beef, and pork, and with many millions 
of most worthless fancy stocks, and then to stop payment, 
and thereby derange the whole currency and exchanges 
of the nation? These are the causes of our distress, and 
against these it has never failed to remonstrate ; it has 
not ceased to warn us of our dangers. The bank party 
have driven us toward the precipice, over which they 
would now compel us to plunge. The administration 
has labored faithfully to avert impending evils. The bank 
veto was intended to put an end to that great disturbing 
power over the currency, which has made its successive 
expansions and contractions so sudden and terrible. The 
removal of the deposits paralized the destructive energy 
with which the bank was then waging war on credit and 
industry, and prepared the community for the redemption 
of its notes and the collection of its debts by that insti- 
tution, if it had been disposed to acquiesce in the deci- 
sion of the nation. The specie circular checked the 
frauds, speculations, and monopolies in the public lands ; 
checked the excessive bank credits in the west ; checked 
also the overbanking and overtrading of the Atlantic 
cities from which it retained specie ; secured the safety 
of the treasury receipts ; strengthened the western banks, 
and thereby lessened the losses of the merchants on the 
seaboard by their inland debtors ; and by retarding the 
exportation of gold and silver to England, made the re- 
sumption of specie payments possible. 

By the passage of the sub-treasury bill the banks know 
that prices are to be more steady and business more re- 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 881 

gular, and the news of the passage ought to have been 
the signal for a general resumption of specie payments, 
south and west, as in fact it was in Charleston, South Caro- 
lina. The only obstacle in the way of a general resump- 
tion at this moment is the deplorable condition of the 
United States Bank, which is perishing in its own rotten- 
ness. Immediately upon the passage of the independent 
treasury bill, the prices of such agricultural products as 
had been most unreasonably depressed, experienced an 
improvement, there was a revival of business, and a re- 
storation of confidence, even according to the confession 
of honest whigs themselves. 

The last and present administrations, then, are not 
responsible for any depression of business. They did 
nothing to cause it. They have done every thing to 
remove it. 

The United States Bank, by its expansions and contrac- 
tions caused all the other banks to expand and contract in 
obedience to its will, while it was itself controlled by the 
Bank of England. These expansions and contractions 
caused prices to rise and fill, so that our business was 
under the control of the Bank of England. Under this 
influence, when prices were high, we imported in three 
years more than a hundred millions of dollars worth of 
goods more than we could then pay for. We imported 
when cotton was sixteen cents a pound, and we are now 
paying for these goods in cotton at less than eight cents 
a pound. This is the blessing of bank action on prices, 
by causing the currency to fluctuate under British control. 
Were welNDEPENDENT while thus controlled? 

When the venerable Franklin, in the last period of his 
life, heard the war of 177G spoken of as the war of inde- 
pendence, he is said to have replied, " Say rather, the war 
of the Revolution : THAT OF INDEPENDENCE IS 
YET TO COME." Ay, fellow-citizens, it was to 
come ! It has come ! We have conquered ! 

For the last ten years the power of the bank has been 
broken. The commerce, agriculture, and manufactures 
of the country have flourished — our business has doubled. 

In 1830, imports 79 millions — exports 73 millions, 
1839, " 1G2 " <' 121 " 



382 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

The prosperity of agriculture and manufactures has 
been even more astonishing than that of commerce. 

Under the full power of the bank, these great interests 
were decaying. From 1825 to 1830, the commerce of 
the country diminished, the prices of agricultural pro- 
ducts fell, factories without number failed. Whoever 
remembers the disasters of that gloomy period of the 
bank ascendency, rejoices in the relief and comparative 
ease of the last ten years. Never has the good of the 
whole people been more successfully provided for ; and 
yet never was man more outraged and vilified, than the 
two illustrious statesmen who during that period have suc- 
cessively presided over the destinies of the nation. 

The sole purpose of government is the good of the 
whole people, and the gratitude and love of the people 
will reward him whom the enmity of the few would 
in vain strive to load with dishonor. He has fought the 
good fight faithfully, and let the disappointed and the 
envious detractor say what they may, sixteen millions of 
freemen liave already awarded to him the meed of an 
undying fame. 

Fellow-citizens, the conflict which we have hitherto 
carried on victoriously under his auspices, is still to be 
continued. Perpetual vigilance is the price of liberty. 
Let no neglect of ours forfeit the rich inheritance. In 
union there is strength. Let us march shoulder to shoul- 
der to the decisive onset. Let us present to the foes of 
the democratic cause, a concentrated, and therefore a 
formidable front. 

In our candidate for the fir.st office in the gift of the 
people, we can have nothing more to desire. The dis- 
tinguished son of the empire state is the adopted favorite 
of the whole Union. The arrows of his assailants have 
fidlen harmless at his feet, and our clear-sighted yeomanry 
do justice to the leading traits of his well-balanced cha- 
racter. 

To form a perfect statesman, the knowledge of history, 
the wisdom of experience and the inspiration of genius 
combine to illuminate his understanding; while courage 
to dare, and fortitude to suffer in the cause of humanity, 
must arm him with an impenetrable panoply for that war- 



ADDRESS TO YOUNO MEN. 388 

fare against the common enemies of our race, to which 
a generous philanthropy will incessantly impel him. In 
which of these requisites does not Martin Van Buren 
excel ? 

" Who," said Mr. Wilde, of Georgia, no partial wit- 
ness — " who was a more dexterous debater ? better versed 
in the politics of our country ; or deeper read in the 
HISTORY of others ; above all, who was more thoroughly 
imbued with the idiom of the English language, and 
its beauty and delicacy, or more capable of breathing 
thoughts of flame in words of magic and tones of silver?" 

From the momentous crisis of the war to this day, hold- 
ing the most important trusts, and fdling the most respon- 
sible stations in state and nation, in a continued though 
varied career of active and arduous duty, who can have 
reaped a richer harvest of experience ? 

At the outset of his public life, he stepped at once into 
the front rank of the New York bar, where the Spencers, 
Kents, and Livingstons, and Hamilton had established the 
standard of talent. At the time which tried men's souls, 
the darkest period of the war, on his first entrance to the 
senate of that state, he, a youth, gave the efhcient impulse 
to that body. Mounting to higher theatres of fame, in 
every part he is called to act, he distances all rivalship. 
When his enemies look for his eclipse and downfall, they 
behold him shining brighter and soaring higher, with the 
brilliancy of transcendent intellect, and the buoyancy of 
paramount merit. His intrigues the service of the peo- 
ple, his arts the faithful performance of duty, he has run 
rapidly through a series of promotion, shedding lustre on 
every post he occupies. Who can exhibit proofs more 
unequivocal of genius of the highest order 1 

In the legislature, the senate, the cabinet, through the 
war, the great northern defection, and the struggle for 
the renewed ascendency of democratic principles, through 
the death grapple with the moneyed power, the courace 
he has manifested cannot be called in question ; neither 
can the fortitude with which he smiles upon the system- 
atic detraction, virulent beyond example, except in the 
history of Jefferson and Jackson^ by which he has been 



384 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tried as by fire, but under which no man ever saw him 
quail or waver. 

" Uncompromising hostility to the United States Bank, 
the interest and the honor ot" the people demand it," has 
been the maxim of his faith and practice. We have, with 
his express pledge, the guaranty of his uniform course, 
from his first entrance upon the political arena, that he 
will follow in the footsteps of Andrew Jackson. He has 
followed ; and like him has triumphed. 

In politics, men are put forward to represent princi- 
ples, and to effect the will of the masses. Let us again 
elevate Martin Van Buren to the chair of state, that we 
may not only maintain the ground we have gained alrea- 
dy, but during the second term of his presidency, soon 
about to open so auspiciously, eradicate from our system 
and institutions, every vestige of foreign policy, intro- 
duced by servile imitation, and discordantly combined 
with the original home growth of freedom, only to mar 
its simplicity and unity. 

That he is the man predestined by Providence to ac- 
complish this glorious work, we have abundant evidence 
in that he has thus far been prospered in this his high 
mission. Commenced in a darker day, he has gone on 
with the arduous task of giving permanent stability to 
American independence and liberty, and already the 
sunshine of victory gladdens and cheers his honest efforts. 
Three years ago, the bank desperadoes hoped by distress 
and panic to bend to their will the American people and 
the government of their choice. The onset was terrible, 
but our leader stood firm. A bold man might have hesi- 
tated, a timid man would have quailed ; but he, unap- 
palled by the real perils of the crisis, called together 
the Congress of the extra session, collected all the talent 
opposed to him, and met them on their own chosen battle 
ground. There was no uncommittal in that immortal 
message which scattered confusion through their ranks. 
He said to the bank aristocracy, with democratic frank- 
ness. This is my plan. They had no plan to offer, but 
wasted their fury in impotent attacks upon his, like vipers 
gnawing at a file. They could delay, but they could not 



THE CURRENCY. 885 

defeat that wise and virtuous measure which seals our 
independence. We have no longer any thing to fear 
from the bank, which Mr. Jefferson called an institution 
ofthe"xMOST DEADLY HOSTILITY EXISTING 
TO A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT." 
From a mighty sovereignty ambitious to dictate terms to 
the nation, it has sunk to its place upon the list of fancy 
stocks. 

In the pending contest, our country expects every man 
to do his duty. That grand and original measure of a 
bold and wise policy, on which the whole issue is staked 
must and will be sustained. Liberty, righteousness and 
truth must triumph. Then may we trust in the assurance 
that Independence is ours forever. 



*®^^®* 



THE CURRENCY. 

Our monopoly, paper money, banking system in its 
best estate, when free from derangement, and enjoying 
undoubted credit, imposes heavy taxes on the people. 
The expenses of carrying on the whole complicated ma- 
chinery, fall ultimately upon the consumer of the goods 
which are bought and sold by the borrowers from the 
banks. As the consumer in the country has to pay in- 
terest on the capital invested in these goods for a much 
longer time than the consumer in the city, as the poor 
man, buying in smaller quantities, pays a much larger 
advance on the first cost, and consequently on the inte- 
rest which makes a part of the cost, than the rich man who 
buys in larger quantities, this tax, as well as all other tax- 
es levied on consumption, falls more nearly an equal im- 
position of so much a head on the whole population, than 
in any other proportion. The rent of land and buildings, 
loss and repairs upon them, cost of bills, salaries of the 
various officers, presidents, cashiers, tellers, clerks, and 
messengers, fees of notaries on protested notes, fees of 
attorneys on suits brought, all these are paid, with inte- 
33 



THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

rest on them all, by the consumer. These charges in the 
aggregate must considerably exceed one per cent, on the 
capital employed. The capital stock of the banks in 
Massachusetts is about forty millions. For the expenses 
of these banks, then, we the people pay of our earnings 
more than four hundred thousand dollars per annum. 

The hank tax to the state treasury is drawn from the 
same source, and robs us every year of four hundred 
thousand dollars more. I shall be answered that it de- 
frays the expenses of the state ; what then ? Is it just to 
defray those expenses by a capitation tax? Ought they 
not to be borne in the ratio of property ? But the bank 
tax, just or unjust, even if it cost the people nothing, has 
been a curse to this commonwealth rather than a blessing. 
It has introduced corruption into the state government, 
augmenting its expenses more than the whole amount re- 
ceived from the banks. In eighteen hundred twenty-four, 
a committee of both houses of our legislature reported 
that the expenses of the state were enormously great and 
ought to be diminished. Ever since that time they have 
been rapidly increasing. In eighteen hundred and twen- 
ty-five they amounted to less than two hundred thousand 
dollars, last year they exceeded six hundred thousand ! 
This we owe to the bank tax, and to that tax we owe the 
present unparalleled extension of oar banking system : 
the one per cent, to be annually paid to the state opera- 
ting as a bribe whenever new charters were asked for. 

The bank receives interest not only on its capital, but 
also on that portion of the debts it owes which is repre- 
sented by its circulation. The people are thus compelled 
to pay interest first on what they owe the banks, and se- 
cond on what the banks owe them. For the use of their 
capital, it is right that they should receive a fair compen- 
sation, but the power of putting their own debts in cir- 
culation, and receiving interest on them as long as they 
remain unpaid, is an exclusive privilege of the banks, and 
a tax is thereby levied from the people. The whole cir- 
culation of the banks by the state returns last September 
was about eleven millions. The interest accruing on this 
on banking principles exceeds seven hundred thousand 
dollars. 



THE CURRENCY. 9^ 

The monxypoly which the banks enjoy raises the rate of 
interest to those who wish to effect loans without recourse 
to banks, and enables the favorites of those institutions 
to take advantage of the state of the markets, which 
others, not so favored, cannot do. This monopoly is un- 
doubtedly worth to the bankers and their favorites much 
more than double the profit they derive from their circu- 
lation. Of late years it is the principal object in esta- 
blishing new banks. It taxes the people more than four- 
teen hundred thousand dollars a year. 

By the combined operation of the banking system and 
the usury laws, it has become very difficult for any one 
not belonging to the party of the bankers to obtain money 
on loan except through the intervention of brokers. The 
profits paid to brokers for changing notes for money, dis- 
count on uncurrent notes, commission for negotiating 
loans, and the higher rate of interest on money borrowed 
by them at or below the legal rate, and let again for extra 
interest, all these constitute another tax which the bank- 
ing system levies on us. Whoever considers for how 
small a part of the money let in this state the actual 
owner receives more than legal interest, while two or 
even three per cent, a month have been paid on large 
sums for a great part of last year, will not be disposed to 
doubt, especially if he recollects that the revulsion in the 
money market returns regularly every three or four years, 
that this tax far exceeds three times the profit of the cir- 
culation. It is therefore more than two millions and one 
hundred thousand dollars. 

Bills lost or accidentally destroyed are also a tax on 
the public. When a government calls in the metallic 
currency to be recoined and reissued, the depreciation by 
friction and clipping is a loss to the government. But 
when a bank calls in its notes, the whole amount of bills 
lost, or destroyed by wear and tear, or accident, is so 
much clear gain to the bank ; and not only so, but on 
double the amount of every bill lost the bank receives 
compound interest from the day of its loss down to the 
close of its own existence. Thus, for all its bills lost in 
the year eighteen hundred and seventeen, the United 
States Bank has received eight times their value. How 



3S8 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

much the banks abstract from the public in this way can- 
not be known until the expiration of their charters. The 
sum is no doubt large ; but in the absence of fixed data, 
I will make no attempt to estimate it. 

So also cGuntcrfdt notes are a tax on the people, though 
not to the profit of the banks, yet apart of the price we 
have to pay for the banking system, a loss falling almost 
exclusively on persons of small property. They are not 
as a class so good judges of bills, and counterfeiting is 
mostly confined to small bills. There are about two hun- 
dred known cditiu7is of counterfeit bills of the United 
States Bank, and about nine hundred editions of those 
of the local banks. How many of each edition ever 
passed into circulation we have no means of determining, 
but evidently many millions of dollars of it have been 
manufactured, and the loss which falls on honest and un- 
suspecting poverty must be considerable. It is useless to 
attempt to estimate it. 

The loss by the failures of hanks, which always have, 
and always will occasionally happen, is also a tax on the 
community. By Mr. Gallatin's tables, 330 banks were in 
operation in 1830, and 1G5 had failed before that date ! 
We boast of the superior prudence with which our banks 
are managed, and of the safeguards which the laws have 
established for the protection of the public. The greater 
security of our New England banking system seems to be 
as well settled as that there are fewer steamboats blown 
up on Long Island Sound than on the Mississippi river. 
Yet the failure of the Farmer's Exchange, Berkshire, 
Coos, Hillsborough, Keeue, Hallowell and Augusta, Wis 
casset, Castine, Belchertown, Sutton, Nahant, and Chel 
sea banks, all in New England, and not to mention more, 
are quite enough to demonstrate that such catastrophes 
are by no means impossible. It would be difficult to es- 
timate the total loss they have occasioned. 

These are the burdens of legitimate paper money bank 
ing, inseparable from ihe system ; and before proceeding 
to enumerate the evils of overbanking, let us add up these 
items which no one can deny must always exist wherever 
banks, having the exclusive power to issue paper money, 
are to be found. Let us look at the aggregate cost of 



THE CURRENCY. 3§9 

these institutions, and judge whether they are worth it in 
any good we receive from them. The account, so far, is 
stated thus : expense tax, 400,000 ; state tax, 400,000 ; 
circulation tax, 700,000; monopoly tax, 1,400,000; bro- 
kerage tax, 2,100,000; in all, |5,000,000— besides lost 
bills, forged bills, and bank failures, not estimated, for 
which a round sum might be justly added. 

These FIVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS are mostly 
the product of hard labor, and by the legerdemain of pa- 
per money they are transferred to the pockets of the note 
makers. Thus a tax is levied on the inhabitants of this 
commonwealth of about seven dollars a head, or from 
thirty-five to forty dollars for each family. What feudal 
nobility ever gathered a larger tribute from its vassals 1 

There are one hundred and eighty thousand able bod- 
ied men in this state, the average wages of whose labor 
cannot exceed two hundred and fifty dollars a year. That 
rate would give a total of forty-five millions : so that the 
manufacturers of paper money and their associates con- 
vert to their own use one ninth part of the wages of 
labor. This they do without rendering any equivalent, 
for this whole tax is exclusive of a fair interest on the 
actual capital loaned. 

A large majority of those who earn the wages of labor 
are unable to add to them the wages of skill, and very 
few receive the still higher wages of machinery, yet all 
bear the burden alike. Though persevering industry and 
rigid economy will enable a man living solely by the 
labor of his hands to accumulate something, even under 
such disadvantages, yet slow and hard must be the pro- 
cess, and it is evident that many can never extricate 
themselves from a hopeless poverty who might rise, were 
this weight removed ; and that many who now attain a 
competence only when old age is unfitting them to enjoy 
it, might have found themselves in easy circumstances of 
pecuniary independence, in early manhood, if the paper 
money tax had not borne them down. 

We are yet upon the threshold of our investigation. 

We have examined the effects of our system of banking 

in its ordinary and natural operation merely. We have 

not yet touched upon the effects of overhanlcing. We 

33* 



390 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

have, it is true, seen enough to give us some faint con- 
ception of the injury a paper currency inflicts on the 
community, but its most odious and alarming character- 
istics remain to be exposed. We will develop to the 
view its calamities, its convulsions, its agrarianism, its 
paralyzing, desolating, withering influence. Before we 
have concluded our inquiries we shall be satisfied that 
there is no other evil in the land, except intemperance, 
that can be compared for magnitude with paper money ; 
there is no other cause so fruitful of misery, pauperism 
and crime. 

The first eflect of overbanking is wild speculations, 
the weight of which falls as a tax on the consumers of 
all foreign and domestic products. Banks, by issuing 
paper, cheapen the currency, and of course raise prices : 
rising prices tempt more purchasers into the market, and 
the competition of purchasers runs up the prices still 
higher. The banks furnish funds to the speculators, and 
enable them to hold on their purchases, in order to profit 
by the rise. The enhanced prices take so much out of 
the pocket of the consumer, for which he receives no 
equivalent. 

In 1830, the bank capital of the United States was one 
HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE MILLIONS : in 1836, it had 
risen to THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY- 
EIGHT MILLIONS : it is now probably about TRE- 
BLE its amount seven years ago. The paper circulation 
in 1830 was sixty-one millions: in 1836, it was ONE 
HUNDRED AND FORTY MILLIONS, the highest 
point it reached was probably about ONE HUNDRED 
AND EIGHTY-SIX MILLIONS. In 1830, the loans 
and discounts of the banks amounted to about two hun- 
dred millions : in 1836, they were FOUR HUNDRED 
AND FIFTY-SEVEN MILLIONS : they have since 
exceeded FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY MIL- 
LIONS. The bank capital, circulation, and discounts, 
having more than doubled, and indeed nearly trebled, in 
less than seven years time, the immense and unparalleled 
speculations we have witnessed, have been the necessary 
result. Sales of public lands rose from less than two and 
a half millions in 1830, to more than twenty-four mil- 



THE CURRENCY. 391 

lions in 183G. Lands in Maine were purchased in vast 
quantities at ten times tlieir former prices. House lots 
enough were laid out to accommodate two or three times 
the present population of the nation. The land imme- 
diately about New York, and within ten miles of that 
city, which in 1830 was valued at ten millions of dollars, 
changed hands at prices which would have made the 
whole amount to over one hundred millions. Our imports 
increased from seventy millions in 1830, to one hundred 
and ninety millions in 1836. Prices of all articles of 
consumption rose, some forty, some sixty, and many a 
hundred per cent. But the wages of labor, fixed salaries, 
and compensation for services of all kinds are the last to 
rise, and the first to fall, in a general change of prices, 
nor do they fluctuate half so much as articles of mer- 
chandise. Laboring men therefore suffer most by the 
rise of prices which speculation occasions. Those who 
live on fixed salaries, or receive fixed fees, or enjoy the 
fixed income or interest of funds invested, suffer next, in 
the enormous tax levied by speculators. 

But all this is independent of the fortunes lost by those 
engaged in trade and commerce, and the sacrifice sub- 
mitted to by one of the parties to every contract, by the 
jluctuations in the money market, which follow each 
other at intervals of about three years, rising and falling 
with as much regularity as the billows of the ocean, and 
having always a smaller series of intermediate waves 
between the billows. These fluctuations are the natural 
result of the banking system, and will always grow out 
of it. When confidence begins to return after one of 
our terrible convulsions, prices, from the mere fact that 
they had fallen too low, begin to rise. This gives busi- 
ness an impulse, and disposes dealers to borrow money 
and make purchases. There is a competition between 
those who wish to supply themselves, as they are all anx- 
ious to lay in their stock of goods before there is any 
essential advance. The banks are willing to loan freely 
for this purpose, because purchasers at the low prices 
being perfectly safe, they are secure of repayment. Each 
bank can enlarge its discounts and loans, because, as all 
the other banks are doing the same, its bills are not forced 



392 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

home upon it for redemption. The more money is issued, 
the more purchasers are made; and prices rise both from 
depreciation of the currency, and from the briskness of 
the demand. The faster prices rise, the more pressing 
will be the applications to the banks for loans ; and the 
banks, as their first object is to make large dividends, 
will grant these applications as long as confidence con- 
tinues. New banks are created : old banks push to the 
verge of prudence. More goods are imported, more 
goods are manufactured, production of every kind is 
over-stimulated. 

There must, however, be a pause in this progress. 
Either from the depreciation of the currency, specie be- 
comes of less value here than abroad, and is therefore ex- 
ported ; or the market is so glutted with products, that 
buyers are indifferent about taking them off the hands of 
holders, in which case a competition arises among the 
sellers which runs down prices; or a suspicion springs up 
in the mind of capitalists, or of the bankers themselves, 
and finally of the whole community, that prices artificially 
high are unsafe, and must fall. From whatever cause it 
happens, when once confidence is shaken, the banks, will- 
ing or unwilling, must contract. They find themselves 
in a precarious situation, and to fortify themselves, they 
call in their paper, and diminish their discounts. Contrac- 
tion once begun, must go on, by a necessity as irresistible 
as the decree of fate, for every bank sends home the paper 
of every other bank. By the contraction, money is re- 
stored to its true value, prices are reduced again, and the 
improvident, surprised with large stocks on hand, are 
ruined. 

It is in the power of a combination of banks, or of one 
mammoth bank, to increase these periodical fluctuations, 
or to create lesser intermediate vibrations, for their own 
advantage, at pleasure. In June, 1819, a leading press, 
Niles's Register, complained, and justly too, that " We 
have now indubitable evidence that twenty-five men at 
Philadelphia can make money plenty at their own will 
and discretion — an immense command over the nation, 
by fixing the value of every acre of land, and of any 
other species of property, from the lowest point of Flori- 



THE CURRENCV. 

da, to the Lake of the Woods." It might with more truth 
have been alleged four years ago that one man in Phila- 
delphia possessed this power, and the nation felt soon af- 
terwards that he did not scruple to use it. 

A bank with a cnpital of thirty-five millions can make 
its managers and their favorites rich, at a single operation, 
by making money alternately plenty and scarce. Having 
first secured large loans to its favorites as a permanent 
accommodation for twelve months or more, they then 
contract their discounts suddenly. This compels all the 
lesser banks to curtail their accommodations and collect 
their debts rapidly. In three or four months' time this 
sinks prices a fourth or even a third. Then the mana- 
gers invest their funds to the best advantage, and the ar- 
rangements being completed, the bank floods the country 
with its notes again, and the lesser banks freed from the 
pressure of balances against them, follow its example ; 
and money instantly abounds, and property assumes higher 
values than before its fall. The speculators sell at the 
highest point, the bank itself furnishing the purchasers 
with funds if necessary. When the golden harvest is 
fully reaped, they may make money scarce again, and 
prepare for another. 

In describing this process, Mr. Niles, in 1819, used 
this strong language. " At the end of the year, the man- 
agers in the scheme realize from fifty to one hundred 
thousand dollars each, which they may be said as com- 
pletely to rob the people of, as if, with pistol in hand, 
they took the money from travellers on the highway. In- 
deed the last should be considered the most honorable. " 
These expressions are too severe ; they were wrung from 
sober men at that time, by the torture which the United 
States Bank inflicted, when it first regulated the currency, 
much as one might regulate the packing of gunpowder, 
by clapping a coal of fire into a cask of that article. 
The bank no sooner touched the currency than a univer- 
sal explosion ensued, scattering the broken fragments of 
credit over the south and west, and covering the land 
with the wreck of blasted hopes, enterprise arrested, 
commerce stagnant, industry prostrate, mutual confidence 
annihilated, and the whole business intercourse of soci- 



394 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

ety thrown into a chaos of irremediable confusion. Mr. 
Niles's phrase was, " the bank was saved, but the country 
was ruined." Their agony under the screws of the great 
engine may excuse the sufferers under the first rcffulatiQn 
for the intemperate warmth of such remarks. The vic- 
tim broken on the wheel is not expected to groan with 
grace and decorum. It is fashionable, now-a-days, to 
speak more tenderly and respectfully of this mode of 
conveying one man's property into another man's pocket, 
and no one, I think, would venture to compare it with 
highway robbery. 

It is neither to be asserted nor intimated, because it 
cannot be proved, that the directors of banks, often, with 
a deliberate design, create a pressure in order to take 
advantage of it, as just now described : but the effect on 
the community, of the fluctuations produced by banks, is 
of the same nature, even in the absence, which we be- 
lieve is generally the case, of any injurious intention on 
the part of the managers of those institutions. In times 
of scarcity, the directors and their friends are naturally 
accommodated before strangers. Those who stand at 
the source of the stream drink first. With scarce mo- 
ney, they buy at low prices. When prices are rising, 
and money easy, then it is that the banks discount freely, 
because they tnen can do it, not being pressed or run 
upon. Then it is that the knowing ones sell, because 
then they can sell highest, and pay their debts to the 
banks, because just then a loan is no favor. A large 
balance of profit remains in their hands, and as soon as a 
falling market and contracted issues have brought about 
the proper moment to enter on a new speculation, they 
are ready to borrow and buy again. 

But it is not only the favored borrowers from banks 
who tax the people through these fluctuations ; if it were, 
that tax has been reckoned already in speaking of the 
advantage they gain from their monopoly. But the 
whole amount of property transferred by the fluctuation, 
vast as it is, is a tax on the losers, which the banking sys- 
tem has enabled the gainers to levy on them. 

A great crime, a national crime, has been committed, 
and is still persisted in — the crime of cheating the labor- 



{ 



THE CURRENCY. 395 

ing classes by the delusion of paper money. Who then 
are guilty of this heinous crime ? for the innocent must 
not share the shame ; who are the guilty ? 

Not every stockholder of a bank, not every officer of a 
bank, not every borrower from a bank, not every tra- 
der, or capitalist, who has profited by the fluctuations 
caused by a paper currency. O, no ! We should do 
them great injustice if we set down all these as our 
enemies, when among them are many of our best friends 
— friends who are ready to witness their sincerity by 
cheerfully submitting to great sacrifices to restore a 
wholesome currency. The system is riveted upon us. 
It has insinuated itself into all business intercourse, so 
that no business man can keep clear of it, any more 
than he could keep clear of cold, if he had been born in 
the frigid zone, or of heat on the sands of the great de- 
sert, for paper money is all pervading as the atmosphere. 
We might as well proscribe every man who takes a bank 
bill, as every man who owns a bank share, or assists in 
managing a bank, for it is the bill holders, ultimately, who 
produce the fluctuations : if they refused to receive paper, 
it could not be issued. There are thousands, tens of 
thousands, who abhor irredeemable paper, and will go as 
far as any man to suppress the mischief, but who cannot, 
so long as bad legislation forces it upon them, disentan- 
gle themselves from the system, without neglecting duties 
they are bound to discharge, and abandoning the station 
in which Providence has placed them. A sober man may 
disapprove of war, and of all preparation for war, yet 
if the government has established a powder magazine 
in the heart of his village, it is better that he should 
keep it than a drunkard or a lunatic. In the debate 
on the charter of the United States Bank, John Ran- 
dolph said, that he owned no stock whatever, except 
live stock, and had determined never to own any ; but if 
this bill passed, he would not only be a stockholder to the 
utmost of his power, but would advise every man, over 
whom he had any influence, to do the same, because it 
was the creation of a great privileged order of the most 
hateful kind to his feelings, and because he would rather 
be the master than the slave. Without going quite this 



396 THE TRUE AMERICAN, 

length with Mr. Randolph, many feel justified in defend- 
ing themselves with the same weapons with which they 
are attacked, though anxious to prohibit the use of those 
weapons to all. These are on our side, and we must not 
make war upon them, for without their assistance we shall 
never be able to reduce the trade in money to an equal 
footing with all other trades. To whom then does the 
guilt belong, for it must fall somewhere ? 

To those who fastened the system on us, vi'ho uphold 
and defend it, who oppose all efforts to abolish it or miti- 
gate its evils, who are determined to perpetuate it, with 
all its most grievous abuses. To all who sustain it by 
their votes in the national or state legislatures. To all 
who vote for the bank candidate for President of the Uni- 
ted States ; the bank candidates for congress ; the bank 
candidate for governor ; the paper money partisans for 
state senators and representatives. Among these are 
thousands who own no bank stock, and who groan under 
the curses they invite. If they kneel for the rider to 
mount, who can pity them when they feel the spurs ? 

Who have fastened the system upon us ? Clearly those 
who profit by it, the aristocratic, or whig party, so called 
because they somewhat resemble the party in Great Bri- 
tain thus described in the Edinburgh Review, " THE 
STRENGTH OF THE WHIGS LAY IN THE 
GREAT ARISTOCRACY, IN THE CORPORA- 
TIONS, AND IN THE TRADING OR MONEYED 
INTERESTS." Look at their course in Massachu- 
setts. In the spring session of eighteen hundred and 
thirty-five there were many petitions for new banks. Some 
few whig presidents and directors of banks opposed peti- 
tions asking for a share in their monopoly; but the ma- 
jority of the whig party voted to grant them. The whole 
democratic party opposed them, as did many nominal 
whigs, with democratic consciences, from among the 
yeomanry, and they were defeated. All the support they 
received came from whigs, the most ardent opposition 
they encountered was from democrats. If one fourth 
part of the democrats in the legislature had supported 
them, they would all have passed, and a numerous litter 
of banks would that year have cursed the state. 



THE CURRENCT. 897 

The aristocracy has lately come before the country 
more distinctly than ever as the bank party. The coali- 
litioii evidently intend to fight over again the battle for a 
national h,\uk in which they were defeated in eighteen 
hundred and thirty-two. Tiiey cannot at this moment 
agree upon the precise plan of the institution they would 
establish, and the diiHculty of deterniiniF>g the details 
may cause some delay in bringing forward their project ; 
but the hope of a national bank is their only bond of 
anion. The whigs profess that the revolution of 1688, 
from which they derive their name, " was a revolution in 
favor of property." They believe that " it is the part of 
wisdom to found government on property." They "avow 
their belief that in a great majority of cases, the posses- 
sion of property is the proof of merit." They hope to 
become much more imritorious, if the government can 
be founded on their property, by creating a national bank, 
and investing it with controlling power. 

A national bank cures none of the evils of paper mo- 
ney banking, but enhances them all. it increases all the 
expenses of the system, for the great bank, being on a 
more magnificent scale than any other, sets an example 
of extravagance to all the rest^ which by degrees they 
follow. It vastly increases the fluctuations of the cur- 
rency, for the smaller institutions bank upon its paper as 
they otherwise would upon specie ; and as this paper is 
much more easily obtained than specie, while the bank is 
expanding, it makes the general expansion more rapid ; 
and as it is more suddenly withdrawn than specie, when 
the great bank contracts, it makes the general contrac- 
tion more sudden. If the state banks issued paper on a 
specie basis, the fluctuations of the paper currency would 
still be a great evil ; but how much greater must be the 
fluctuation, when the basis itself is an elastic medium, 
which expands when it ought to contract, and contracts 
when it ought to expand ? It of course increases the de- 
preciation, which must be greater in proportion as the 
whole amount of paper out exceeds the specie. 

That such an institution fosters more than any other 
the spirit oi speculation is too evident to need proof The 
larger the bank, the more enormous will be the specula- 
34 



398 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tions it occasions, and these enormous speculations, de- 
ranging prices, will engender innumerable smaller opera- 
tions of a similar character. April 9th, 18J?'2, the loans 
of the mother bank, at Philadelphia, made that day, 
were — 

In 1 loan, over $400,000 $417,766 

4 loans not less than 200,000 995,456 

3 " " " " 100,000 341,729 

19 " " " " 50,000 1,274,882 

72 " " " " 20,000 2,404,278 



$5,434,111 

leaving less than a tenth part of this amount, $529,974 
only, to be divided in sums less than twenty thousand 
dollars, among all the rest of the community. The spe- 
culations into which men launch with such facilities, ter- 
minate in bankruptcies of a proportionate magnitude. 

A national bank is the great parent o^ forgery. Small 
banks having a local circulation, their bills are less ex- 
tensively counterfeited, because the chance of detection 
is greater, the fraud sooner becomes impossible, the field 
to operate in is not so wide. From 1797 to 1819, the pro- 
secutions for counterfeit notes of the Bank of England 
were nine hundred and ninety-eight ; the convictions 
were eight hundred and forty-three, of which three hun- 
dred and thirteen were capital. The counterfeit notes 
detected at the hank alone, during six years and three 
months of that time, were 107,238 one pound notes, 
17,787 two do., 5,826 five do., 419 ten do., 54 twenty 
do., 35 above twenty pounds. If more than twenty thou- 
sand a year are detected at the bank, how shall we esti- 
mate the numbers detected elsewhere ? 

The verdict of history is decisive against national 
banks. The Royal Bank of France was one of the most 
flattering and fatal delusions. Never was a financier 
more popular than John Law, its founder. Never was a 
country more prosperous than France seemed before 
that bubble burst. An eminent French writer of that 
time called the projector " a minister far above all that 
the past age has known, that the present can conceive, or 
that the future will believe." All France was seized with 



THE CURRENCY. 399 

a rage for speculation. " All the world," says Postle- 
thvvaite, " ran to Paris." There were half a million of 
new comers in the city. Twelve hundred new coaches 
were set up. As fast as new blocks and streets could be 
built up, lodgings could not be had. The reaction shook 
the social fabric to its base. Gloom and despair were 
inmates with every household. Four hundred thousand 
fortunes had been sacrificed, and the state loaded itself 
with a specie debt of sixteen hundred and thirty-one mil- 
lions of livres. The amount of its paper in circulation 
at the time of the crash was four hundred and nineteen 
millions of dollars, not so much beyond our own paper 
circulation, in proportion to the population, as the terms 
in which this bank is usually described would naturally 
imply, while the specie thrown into the bank in March 
and April, 1720, exceeded fiity-six millions of dollars, an 
accession of hard money such as our banks never re- 
ceived, in so short a time. John Law died at Venice, in 
1729, never relinquishing for a moment the firmest con- 
viction of the solidity of his system, the disastrous failure 
of which he attributed entirely to the malice of his ene- 
mies ; and thousands of his disciples entertained the 
same belief for many years. 

The present bank of France was established in 1803 ; 
and though, issuing no small notes, its circulation is com- 
paratively steady, yet it has twice produced considerable 
distress ; in 1806, when it occasioned numerous failures, 
and again in 1814, when it became so embarrassed that 
the government were obliged to limit its specie payments. 

But the Bank of England is the model of American 
bankers. Its history is full of instruction and warning. 
In 1693, in the midst of national disasters, both the peo- 
ple and the ministry were weary of the war, which pro- 
duced nothing but disgrace, but which William was ob- 
stinately bent upon continuing. He therefore brought in 
a whig ministry, whom he expected to find tractable, 
partly from the ambition of being courted by the crown, 
and partly from the prospect of gain from advancing 
money to the government. The most scandalous prac- 
tices in the mystery of corruption were at that time exer- 
cised in grants, places, pensions, and salaries to members, 



400 THE TUUH AMEniCAM. 

whereby the House of Commons was so managed thai 
the king could quash all grievances, stifle the examination 
of accounts, and defeat any bill. When these practices 
M'ere exposed, mere shame forced through both houses a 
bill for free and impartial proceedings in parliament, to 
which bill, the king, with the concurrence of his whig 
ministry, to whose existence corruption was essential, 
applied his veto. Corruption being thus perpetuated, a 
majority was secured in both houses, and the scheme of 
the bank brought forward, and the charter granted in 
1694. Its whole capital was a loan to the governm.ent ; 
its immediate object was to assist the government in car- 
rying on an unpopular war. Its ultimate effects were 
distinctly foretold by the opposition, but the power of 
corruption prevailed. 

From the year 1797 to 1817, the metallic currency of 
the world had slightly diminished, while the business to 
be transacted hud greatly increased ; prices ought there- 
fore to have fallen, instead of rising. Improvements in 
agriculture had more than kept pace with the increase 
of population ; for this reason also the prices of wheat 
should have fallen. War no doubt raises the price, but 
the war was raging in 1794 and 1795, when the price 
was under fifty shillings ; and the country was at peace 
in 1817, when the price was one hundred and twenty- 
four shillings. Corn laws go but little way to account 
for the fluctuations — they must be mainly owing to bank 
paper. 

Compare the circulation of the baidv and the price of 
wheat for a few years, and see whether you can doubt 
that they are cause and eflect. The circulation of bank 
notes 

in 1787 was £8,688,570, wheat was 49s. 9d. 

1790 " 10,217,360, " " 57 10 

1795 " 13,539,169, '' " 77 5 

1805 " 18,397,880, " " 106 — 

1810 " 31,000,000, " " 116 2 

1817 " 30,099,908, " " 124 — 

After Parliament had determined in 1819 that the bank 

should resume specie payment, it began to diminish its 

circulation, which was brought down to £18,000,000, a 



THE CURRENCY. 401 

less sum, in proportion to the business done, than the 
circulation of 1795. Accordingly wheat fell, and for ten 
years after 1819 it averaged seventy shillings. As thirty 
millions are to eighteen millions, so are one hundred and 
twenty-four shillings to seventy-four shillings : so that 
wheat fell more than bank notes diminished, the increased 
business to be done giving a higher value to money. 

"The average money price of corn regulates more or 
less that of all other commodities," says Adam Smith ; 
we may judge, then, what universal distress this bank 
produced by raising prices. We are not left to conjec- 
ture the effects ; they are matter of record. The years 
1812 and 1817 are the two years in which wheat reached 
the highest price il had borne for nearly six centuries, 
since the great famine of the year 1270. These were 
two years when the taxes were comparatively light, par- 
ticularly 1817. In 1815, for instance, the taxes were 
^79,948,670, while in 1812, they were ^70,435,679, and 
in 1817, they were only =£55,836,257. The distress 
which existed then was produced by the high price of 
wheat, in sjiite of lighter taxation. Yet Mr. Huskisson 
singled out these two years, as those in which the pres- 
sure was most severe. These were his words : " If dis- 
tress bordering upon famine, if misery bursting forth in 
insurrection, and all the other symptoms of wretchedness, 
discontent, and difficulty, are to be taken as symptoms of 
pressure upon the people ; then I should say, that 1812 
and 1817 were two years, of which no good man can 
ever wish to witness the like again." 

Thus has this institution taken the bread out of the 
mouths of the poor, literally and fatally. In Barton's 
poor-law tables the connection is shown between the high 
price of wheat and the increase of mortality. In seven 
manufacturing districts in England, when wheat was 118s. 
3f?. there were 55,965 deaths in a year ; three years later, 
when wheat had fallen to 60s. \d. there were but 44,794 
deaths in the same districts. An extensive comparison 
between prices and mortality demonstrates the fact, that 
nothing tends more to prolong the average duration of 
life than the cheapness of good wholesome bread. In- 
deed, proof of this truth is before us all, in the extraor- 

a4* 



403 THE TRUE AMEUICAN. 

dinary longevity of the inhabitants of the agricultural vil- 
lages of New England. 

Sin and death are nearly related. What has been the 
effect of the Bank of England on crime? The year 1817 
was that in which the amount of bank notes was greatest, 
and tliat year is as distinguished in the annals of the 
criminal law as in the history of the bank. In the year 
1817, the number of criminal prosecutions suddenly rose 
from about 8000 to about 14,000 ; the number of persons 
condemned to death, from 890 to 1:302 ; of persons trans^ 
ported to New Holland, from 1054 to 1734. Want of 
employment, poverty, and hunger, all springing from high 
prices, and the deranged currency, caused these addi- 
tional crimes. In June, 1823, after the resumption of 
specie payments. Sir Robert Peel made the following 
statements to parliament. In 1817, seven out of nine 
of the manufacturing class were unemployed ; in 1823, 
none. In Sheffield, the poor rates, in 1820, were =£30,000 ; 
in 1823, only ^€13,000. In ]S17, there were 1600 
houses empty; in 1823, none. In Birmingham, in 1817, 
of 84,000 inhabitants, 27,500 received aid from the poor 
fund ; a third part of the workmen had no occupation ; 
the remainder were only half employed ; the poor rates 
amounted to about £60,000. In 1823, all the workmen 
were employed ; the poor rates amounted to only ^20,000. 
The weekly pay of weavers, which in 1817, had sunk to 
three shillings and three pence, now rose to ten, and 
sometimes to sixteen shillings. The exports had in- 
creased, and disturbances ceased. 

The mode in which paper money fluctuation, such as 
the Bank of England begets, grinds the independent poor 
into pauperism, has been fully explained already. British 
pauperism is the offspring of the bank. There were not 
two hundred thousand paupers in England and Wales, 
when the bank begun to grind; in 1810 there were 
twelve hundred thousand, and the bank ground harder 
after that. The poor rates were but small in the time of 
King William; but in 1827 they were about thirty-eight 
millions of dollars. 

The madman who scatters firebrands, arrows, and 
death, and says. Am I not in sport ? is innocent and lovely 



THE CURRENCT. 403 

compared with the monster that inflicts these miseries on 
the British people. It sucks the blood from their veins, 
the marrow from their bones : it makes them bond slaves, 
and mocks at their unpaid toil, till exhausted nature sinks 
into an early grave. It is such an incarnation of active, 
all-pervading, uia-emitted cruelty, that our whig nobility 
worship ; that they desire to see enthroned over us ; and 
upon whose altar they are ready to sacrifice the proper- 
ties, morals, lives, and liberties of American citizens. 

The Bank of England has generally had no actual 
capital, no, not a farthir.g, for the purposes of trade. Its 
loans and advances to the government have, during almost 
the whole of its existence, exceeded its whole capital ; so 
that it wrings from the people, by the machinery of pnper 
money, the whole of that immense wealth, on which its 
stockholders fatten ; and through which it has sometimes 
been, to use the expression of one of its friends, " strong 
enough to take the government on its shoulders." In 
such precarious strength there is inherent weakness ; and 
the bank is more likely, ultimately, to bury the govern- 
ment in its ruins, as it threatened to do in 1C96, and again 
in 1797. With the bank begun the funding system : 
hand in hand with the bank, dependent on it, and grow- 
ing out of it, the funding system has advanced. Like 
the Siamese twins, they have one common breath of life ; 
separate them, and they perish. " The practice of fund- 
ing," says Adam Smith, " has gradually enfeebled every 
state which has adopted it." He instances the Italian 
Republics, Genoa, Venice, Spain, France, and the Uni- 
ted Provinces, and adds, " Is it likely that in Great Bri- 
tain alone, a practice which has brought either weakness 
or desolation into every other country, should prove alto- 
gether innocent?" Since Smith wrote this (in 1776) 
that explosion has taken place in France, which made all 
nations quake with fear,— an explosion, which would 
never have happened, but for the practice of funding : 
the British debt is quadrupled : is the practice of funding 
less likely now to bring desolation upon Great Britain ? 

The United States had one fair experiment of paper 
money at the outset of their national existence. An eye- 
witness, Mr. Pelatiah Webster, speaks thus, first of its 



404 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

supposed advantages, and afterwards of ils real evils. 
"Though men of all descriptions stood trembling before 
this monster offeree, without daring to lift a hand against 
it, during all this period, (from 1776 to 17SJ,)yet its 
unrestrained energy always proved ineffectual to its pur- 
poses, but in every case increased the evils it was de- 
signed to remedy, and destroyed the benefits it was in- 
tended to promote : at best, its utmost effect was like that 
of water sprinkled on a blacksmith's forge, which indeed 
deadens the flame for a moment, but never fails to in- 
crease the heat and flame of the internal fire. Many 
thousand families of full and easy fortune, were ruined 
by these fatal measures, and lie in ruins to this day, with- 
ont the least benefit to the country, or to the great and 
noble cause in which we were then engaged." He enu- 
merates the sufferings incident to the war, the exorbitant 
price of foreign goods, the extreme scarcity of many ne- 
cessary articles, such as salt, the total cessation of many 
trades for want of materials, the seizure of goods, wagons, 
stock, grain, cattle, timber, and every thing else which 
was wanted for the public service, the captures, ravages, 
and depredations, the burnings and plunders of the ene- 
my, which were very terrible and expensive. "They had 
possession, first or last, in the course of the war, of eleven 
of the capitals of the thirteen states, pervaded the coun- 
try in every part, and left dreadful tracks of their march- 
es behind : burning in cool blood a great number, not 
only of houses, barns, mills, &c., but also of most capital 
towns and villages." Yet all these evils, he testifies, were 
less than those of continental money. " We have suf- 
fered more from this cause," he says, " than from every 
other cause of calamity : it has killed more men, perva- 
ded and corrupted the choicest interests of our country 
more, and done more injustice than even the arms and 
artifices of our enemies." " While we rejoice in the 
riches and strength of our country, we have reason to la- 
ment with tears of the deepest regret, the most pernicious 
shifts of property which the irregularities of our finances 
introduced, and the many thousands of fortunes which 
were ruined by it ; the generous, patriotic spirits suffered 
the injury ; the idle and avaricious derived the benejit 



THE CURRENCY. 405 

from the confusion." This was written at the very peri- 
od of the dissolution of the continental currency system, 
while the people were yet smarting under its torments, the 
remembrance of which had so much power over the fa- 
thers of our constitution, that they deliberately and stern- 
ly REFUSED TO INCORPORATE IN THAT IN- 
STRUMENT, ANY LICENSE TO THE FEDERAL 
GOVERNMENT TO CREATE ANY CORPORA- 
TION, LEST UNDER SUCH A LICENSE THEY 
MIGHT CHAP».TER A NATIONAL BANK. 

It is natural to imagine that government paper which 
depreciates suddenly, and then becomes worthless, is an 
evil much more terrible than a national bank, with its 
ever-fluctuating currency. Not so. A sword cut, or a 
gun-shot wound, however appalling, yet if it heals or 
kills, is less to be dreaded, than to be stretched daily on 
the rack for years, to perish in the torture at last. Law's 
bank and Mississippi scheme, the south sea bubble, as- 
signats, and continental money, marked their course with 
wide destruction, but they had their end. The victims 
who survived recovered, others filled the places of the 
fallen, and a new career of prosperity commenced ; but 
when will England shake off the incubus of her national 
bank ? A paper money explosion, even like the most 
awful on record, is far less to be deprecated than the per- 
petual wrong, injury, and tyranny of a perpetually fluc- 
tuating paper currency ; even as the fire that sweeps the 
prairie, but leaves the soil rich for a fresh vegetation, is 
Jess fatal than the eternal curse of barrenness on Sodom 
and Gomorrah. 

Nothing can prevent a mixed currency partly of paper, 
from becoming superabundant, and consequently depre- 
ciating. Nothing can prevent such a mixed currency 
from fluctuating, and the larger the proportion of paper, 
the greater will be the fluctuation. 

A national bank, or any other banks, issuing small 
bills unrestrictedly, must sooner or later stop specie pay- 
ment : its paper then becomes irredeemable paper, which 
even the whig oracle abhors. This result is not acci- 
dental, it is certain and necessary : it is the inherent vice 
of the system. During the last forty years, the Bank of 



4^ THE TRUE AMERICAN. 



England has refused payment in specie twenty-six years 
and the banks of the United States generally have v2 
ted their obligations twice. 

I say nothing of the government banks on the con- 
tinent of Europe, such as the banks of Petersburg, Co- 
penhagen, Vienna, &c., because the friends of a national 
bank among us have nothing to say for these. Thev ad- 
mit them all to be miserable failures. Their only favorite 
model IS the Bank of England, which has issued Trre- 
deemable paper about half of the time since the United 
btates had a banking system. "A bank not to pay 

menTo r ^^^ ^'"""" "^ ^^'^' " ^^^^^ ^e an inst^-u! 
ment of deception ; it would have no character or feature 

renre '' ^ ^' ^J'^^d regard it with disgust and abhor- 
rence. Such a bank ,s the great bank in Pennsylvania. 
L,et banks issuing small bills set out with what professions 
they may, to this complexion they must come at last • 
sooner or later they will be banks not to pay specie. " 
i\o art, wisdom, or power of man can prevent irre- 
deemable paper from depreciation. The promise of 
gold however slightly doubtful, is worth less than gold 
Itself; but nothing can make a promise known to be 
taise equal to a promise believed to be true. The severest 
pena laws could not prevent guineas from selling at 

I" n?thP^R'' l"1- T\ "^r^ ^^""•"-^^' •" bank nftes, 
while the Bank of England violated its promises. Con- 
gress passed an act of outlawry, (January 11, 1776 ) and 
other threatening declarations, against those who refused 
contmenta bills at par: this did%ot keep them at par 
Danton and Robespierre undertook to sustain the value 
Firi tl'''"l"'''' i*'" revolutionary money of France, 
i u .? ""^"^ ^ ^°"- imprisonment to those who 

v.bl!. i 'r'''.''^°^''"'''^Snats below their nominal 
value, then they fixed a price on all the necessaries of 
life, and punished with death those who, havina such 
articles for sale, refused to sell them at the legal price in 
assignats: but the terrors of the dungeon and the guillo^ 
tme proved insulhcient, though unsparingly employed to 
give value to a worthless paper. The fear ^of'death^ 
then, cannot check the depreciation of irredeemable paper 
n we sum up in one grand total all the wo to wliich 



THE CURRENCY. 407 

paper money banking, and the over-extended system of 
credit growing out of it, have given birth, we shall pro- 
nounce it to be the most tremendous of the plagued 
which the Ahnighty in his wrath has suffered to affict 
degenerate men. Neither war, nor pestilence, nor fa^ 
mine, ever, for so long a time, spread desolation over so 
large a portion of the earth. What now paralizes the" 
energies of Great Britain? Her national debt, which 
originated with tlie bank, grew with its growth and 
strengthened with its strength, is a part of the same sys- 
tem, and without its aid could never have swelled to the 
colossal dimensions in which it overshadows the empire. 
When the bank commenced, the debt was about five 
millions of dollars. . The object of the creation of the 
bank was to increase the debt, which it manages for the 
government, and which is now about four thousand mil- 
lions of dollars ; the sinews of the poor, from generation 
to generation, being mortgaged to pay the interest. The 
burdens and taxes, which I enumerated in speaking of 
the banks of Massachusetts, are but a drop from that 
fountain of bitterness, the preposterous extension of a 
fictitious credit, which has deluged the world with mise- 
ries. View the bank and the funding system together, 
in their combined operation, and see what the abuse of 
credit, through fictitious paper, has done for mankind.^ 
What enabled Great Britain to carry on wars ruinous to 
her own interests, destructive of her own liberties, and 
fatal to the welfare of the human race, for one half the 
period from the accession of King William to the down- 
fall of Napoleon? Paper credit; whereby the ministry 
of the day could not only exhaust the resources of the 
nation, but beggar posterity, building up that national 
debt which is the most stupendous phenomenon of mod- 
ern times ; perhaps, in the world's whole history. Not 
Napoleon in his march on Moscow, with that carnival of 
horrors, the retreat, gave so many corpses to the wolves 
and vultures, as paper credit. Neither Alaric, nor Attila, 
nor any other scourge of God, ever struck down so many 
heads, or glutted his revenge with so vast a havoc, or 
left behind him such wide-spread devastation. 

If France, in 1789, had had no debt, France might 



408 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

have been free and happy, without a bloody revolutk)ny 
and the long years of succeeding agony. Who stimulated 
and kept alive the wars that grew out of the French 
revolution, wherein three millions of human lives were 
sacrificed? England. How did she sustain those wars? 
By her paper credit. It was paper credit that held out 
through twenty-tliree years of carnage, and at last con- 
quered at Waterloo. It is a stock corporation, existing 
by credit, and operating through credit, that has " sold 
every monarch, prince, and state, in India, broken every 
contract, and ruined every prince and every state who 
had trusted them ;" that has bestrown that whole empire 
with the bones of slaughtered millions, turning their tem- 
ples into charnel houses, and making their Eden a Gol- 
gotha. It was paper credit that waged war eight years 
upon the liberties and rising independence of America, 
It is paper credit that rivets the fetters of Ireland, and 
tightens the ligatures which check the circulation of the 
British empire's life-blood. 

Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have predicted, at St. 
Helena, that the next general convulsion of Europe would 
be a conflagration of paper credit. When that catastrophe 
befalls the insolvent governments of the old world, when 
the national debt of England, " incurred one half in 
pulling down the Bourbons, and the other half in setting 
them up," explodes, and blows up with it the bank, the 
East India Company, and the government, while the 
debts of the continent topple down with the shock, will 
not the contest over the wreck be fiercer than the memo- 
rable reign of terror, in proportion as greater interests 
are at stake, and greater numbers implicated ? It seems 
that elements exist to form a crisis as much more terrible 
than the last, as the battle of devils conceived by the 
genius of Milton exceeds in sublimity the ordinary con- 
flicts of men. 

It is time to return from these speculations to our own 
peculiar perils. " Let the Americans," said William 
Pitt, " adopt their funding system, and go into their 
banking institutions, and their boasted independence will 
be a mere phantom." 

Could William Pitt have foreseen, that in about sixty 



THE cunnENcr. 409 

years from our independence, we should have eight hun- 
dred and twenty-tliree banks, whose loans would exceed 
five hundred and ninety millions of dollars ? Could he 
have foreseen that these banks would issue their bills to 
the amount of one hundred and eighty-five millions, and 
then, in May, 1837, stop payment, and continue to flood 
the country with irredeemable paper ? Could he have 
foreseen that a British banking house (the Barings) would 
in their circulars describe, truly describe, the contest 
between the banks and their privileges on the one hand, 
and the people and their liberties on the other, as a con- 
test between the aristocracy of wealth, and the demo- 
cracy of numbers ; and that in this contest, an institution 
modelled after the Bank of England, and largely owned 
by British stockholders, would lead the bank interest ; 
while the democracy of numbers would sustain the go- 
vernment and the constitution of their country 1 Could 
he have foreseen that merchants, having a deep stake in 
the preservation of order, would threaten rather to rebel, 
than pay their dues to the government, while they could 
find plenty of specie to export in England ; and that the 
government would be called on, in every form of entreaty 
and menace, to allow the whole basis of our circulation 
to be withdrawn from us, and to flow from the West to 
the Atlantic cities, and thence across the ocean, leaving 
our banks, and our people, to certain ruin, in order that 
the Bank of England might not be compelled to suspend 
specie payments ? Could he have foreseen that for the 
benefit of England a new doctrine would be advanced in 
America, that " the truth is, the banks of the United 
States are always the STRONGEST when they hold the 
LEAST SPECIE, and the country always the RICH- 
EST when it has the LEAST GOLD AND SILVER ?" 
If he foresaw all this, no wonder he anticipated that 
banks would one day reduce our boasted independence 
to a mere phantom. 

His forebodings will not, however, be realized. Our 
government is a popular government. With us, the will 
of the people is sovereign, and it is not the will of the 
people to barter their birthright for a mess of pottage. 
Though they believed all the promises of advantage which 
35 



410 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

banks hold out, promises which the history of other na- 
tions, and the experience of their own, have shown to be 
delusive, yet liberty and independence are blessings too 
dear to them to be weighed in the balance with wealth. 
What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul ? The slaves of filthy lucre, who 
prize it above liberty, must have sold themselves, body 
and soul, into the service of the god of their idolatry ; 
but the American people cling to their soul's freedom. 

To deliver us from thraldom to the banks, a sound 
currency is indispensable- 
Let the ban dogs of faction howl ; fangless now, their 
malice is impotent. A great people is conscious of its 
rights and power. Calmly majestic, it gathers its strength, 
and rises to overturn, smite, and demolish, whatever the 
spirit of our institutions cannot tolerate. Rashness shall 
not rule the hour, nor an avenging fury confound inno- 
cence with guilt ; but the inflexible determination of vir- 
tuous wisdom shall carry on reform, till her warfare be 
utterly accomplished. Then, when the proud bearing of 
p iper feudality is humbled, the hoarse throat of anarchy 
pjlcuccd, and popular sovereignty sways over all the scep- 
tre of equal justice, then may we exult in the security, 
eternal, as fiir as human foresight reaches, of American 
liLeriy, union, ajid independence. 



•^►♦e®**"'- 



OPINIONS OP ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

The American people may read in the messages of our 
patriot Presidents, summariefi of the principles of freedom, 
such as cannot be found in ;my other series of state pa- 
pers ever given to the world. But so irresistible is the 
impression which these principles make upon the heart, 
that one can hardly believe that any citizen of our free 
country ever thought otherwise than Jefferson, Madison, 
Jackson, and Van Buren. 



OPINIONS OP A. HAMILTON. 411 

When we close the volume that includes their precious 
expositions of the democratic faith, we are almost ready 
to say of the whole contents, what the declaration of in- 
dependence says of the fundamental axioms on which 
their system is "built, "WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS 
TO BE SELF-EVIDENT!" 

Yet the aristocratic party of the country holds, and 
always has held, opinions diametrically the opposite of 
the doctrines of equality. As we have not room to 
give very numerous extracts from their writings, and as 
the acknowledged founder of the whig school is still the 
apostle of the bank faction, we will give a distinct view 
of his ideas of government, to be contrasted with those 
of the great apostles of democracy. 

Extracts from a speech by Alexander Hamilton, June 
18, 1787, as reported in Judge Yates' minutes of the se- 
cret debates of the convention which formed the federal 
constitution : — 

" I believe the British government forms the best mo- 
del the world ever produced, and such has been its pro- 
gress in the minds of many, that the truth gradually gains 
ground. This government has for its object public 
strength and individual security. It is said with us to be 
unattainable. If it was once formed, it would maintain 
itself. 

*' All communities divide themselves into the few and 
the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other 
the mass of the people. The voice of the people has 
been said to be the voice of God ; and however generally 
this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in 
fact. The people are turbulent and changing ; they sel- 
dom judge or determine right. GIVE THEREFORE 
TO TPIE FIRST CLASS A DISTINCT, PERMA- 
NENT SHARE IN THE GOVERNMENT 

* * * << Nothing but a permanent body can 
check the imprudence of democracy. Their turbulent 
and uncontrolling disposition requires checks. 

* * * " It is admitted that you cannot have 
a good executive upon a democratic plan. See the ex- 
cellency of the British executive. He is placed above 
temptation. He can have no distinct interests from the 



iJ% THB TRUB AJntBRICAN. 

publio welfare. NOTHING SHORT OF SUCH AN 
EXECUTIVE CAN BE EFFICIENT. 

* * * " Let one body of the legislature l)e 
constituted during good behavior or life. 

" Let one executive be appointed who dares execute 
his powers. 

* * * "And let me observe, that an execu- 
tive is less dangerous to the liberties of the people when 
in office during life, than for seven years." 

Mr. Hamilton read his plan, which may be found in 
Elliott's Debates, vol. i. p. 12. 

It contained the following provisions : 

1. A legislature in two chambers, " tvith powers to pass 
all laws whatsoever," subject to the veto. 

2. The house to be chosen for three years. 

3. The senate to serve during good behavior, 

4. The executive to serve during good behavior, and 
to have a negative on all laws about to be passed, the en 
tire direction of war when once begun, the appointment 
of his cabinet officers, and nomination to the Senate of 
other officers, and the pardoning power. To appoint 

THE GOVERNOR OF EACH STATE, and TO HAVE A VETO 

ON ALL THE LAWS OF EACH STATE. 

No state to have any forces land or naval, and their 
militia to be under the sole and exclusive direction of the 
United States. 

In closing his speech on this plan, Mr. Hamilton re- 
marked, *' The people are gradually ripening in their opi- 
nions of government — thei/ begin to he tired of an excess 
of democracy — and what even is the Virginia plan, but 
pork still, with a little change, of the sauce." 

Mr. Madison, in his report of this speech in the De- 
bates in the Convention, vol. ii., p. 885, attributes to Mr. 
Hamilton the same ideas. The following are extracts 
from Mr. Madison's account. 

" Mr. Hamilton said, ' In his private opinion, he had no 
scruple in declaring, supported as he was by the opinion 
of so many of the wise and good, that the British go- 
vernment WAS THE BEST IN THE WORLD, and that he doubt- 
ed whether any thing short of it would do in America.' 

'^ Give all power to the many, they will oppress the 



OPINIONS OF A. HAMILTON. 413 

few. Give all power to the few, they will oppress the 
many. Both, therefore, ought to have the power, that 
each may defend itself against the other. To the proper 
adjustment [of this check] the British owe the excellence 
of their constitution. THEIR HOUSE OF LORDS 
IS A MOST NOBLE INSTITUTION." 

" As to the executive, it seemed to be admitted that no 
good one could be established on republican principles. 
Was not this giving up the merits of the question ; for 
can there be a good government without a good execu- 
tive ? THE ENGLISH MODEL WAS THE ONLY 
GOOD ONE ON THIS SUBJECT." * * 

" Let one branch of the legislature hold their places 
for life, or at least during good behavior. Let the exe- 
cutive also be for life." 

In August, 1840, the second volume of the life of Ha- 
milton was published by his son, John C. Hamilton. In 
this volume, page 481, we find " the brief, as it exists 
among his manuscripts," of this celebrated speech. 

Here then are some of the heads as they stand in Ha- 
milton's own hand-writing : 

" BRITISH CONSTITUTION, BEST FORM. 

* * * * * 

" Representation alone will not do. 

" Demagogues will generally prevail. 

" And if separated they will need a mutual check 

"THIS CHECK IS A MONARCH. 

" Each principle ought to exist in full force, or it will 
not answer its end. 

" The democracy must be derived immediately from the 
people. 

*' The aristocracy ought to be entirely separated ; their 
power should be permanent, and they should have the 

caritas liherorum. 

* * * * * 

" The monarch must have proportional strength. HE 
OUGHT TO BE HEREDITARY, and to have so much 
power, that it will not be his interest to risk much to ac- 
quire more. * * * 

" It is said a rcpuhlica/t government does not admit a 
vigorous execution. 
35* 



414 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

^' IT IS THEREFORE BAD ; for the goodness of a 
government consists in a vigorous execution. 

" The principle chiefly intended to be established, is 

this that THERE MUST BE A PERMANENT WILL." 

A M'hig is an admirer and defender of the British con- 
stitution, as settled in 1688. The above extracts prove 
that Alexander Hamilton was a genuine whig. He held 
in its purest form the doctrine vindicated by Daniel Web- 
ster in the Massachusetts convention of 1820, when he 
said, "/if would srcm then to he the part of political wis- 
dom TO FOUND GOVERNMENT ON PROPERTY !" 

" Hamilton," says Mr. Jelferson, " was not only a mo- 
narchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on corruption." 
This is the British whig system, as acted on by Walpole, 
and in this country also illustrated by the operations of the 
bank in its loans to members of Congress, editors, «fec., 
and in its immense fees to Clay, Binney, Webster, and 
others. 



THE PERFECTION OF GOVERNMENT. 

BY GOV. MORTON, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Free government, to be permanent and secure, must 
be founded on equality — equality of rights and duties — 
equal rights of acquisition and enjoyment — duties equal 
in obligation, though not in degree. The powers, mental 
and physical, with which we are endowed, are unequal 
and various, but admirably suited in their proper applica- 
tion to the multifarious wants and comforts of human 
life, and all wisely and wonderfully adapted to the promo- 
tion of the greatest happiness of the whole. He who 
faithfully performs the part assigned to him, will fulfil the 
end of his creation, and be entitled to his appropriate re- 
ward. He who profitably employs the ten talents intrust- 
ed to him, will no more perfectly perform his duty, than 
he who does the same with his one talent. But the 
benefits of their respective labors, and the fruits and 



THE PERFECTION OF GOVERNMENT. 415 

rewards thereof, will be widely different. Each one 
should be secured in the productions of his own industry, 
and the remuneration of each should be in exact propor- 
tion to the utility of his services. Let not those more 
blessed, neglect to employ their own talents, nor seek to 
fdch from the less favored ones the pittance of their 
earnings. 

A munificent Providence has made ample provision for 
the whole human family. But the unequal and unjust 
distribution of his bounties by his children " makes 
countless thousands mourn." Great inequalities of con- 
dition — the extremes of poverty and wealth — are alike 
unfavorable to free institutions, and to the virtue, intelli- 
gence, and happiness of the people. In those communi- 
ties where the greatest degree of equality prevails among 
their members, there also will ever be found the highest 
degree of intelligence, virtue, and felicity. It should, 
therefore, ever be the leading object in the institution 
of government to promote so desirable a state. With 
the different capacities of men perfect equality is unat- 
tainable. But how shall the nearest approximation be 
made? Not by diminishing the stimulants to industry, 
for this is the ordinance of God ; not by weakening the 
rights of property, for they should be deemed sacred, nor 
by restraining its disposition or descent, for this is alike 
beneficial to parents and children ; but by holding out to 
all the highest motives to industry and frugality, and by 
insuring to labor, mental and physical, a reward exactly 
proportionate to its utility. Let every one have undoubt- 
ing assurance that he will receive a share in the common 
stock, in the exact ratio of his contributions to it, and 
this will furnish the highest encouragement which human 
power can offer, to promote the intelligence, virtue, and 
happiness of the whole. 

Such is the high aim of democracy. If, like all hu- 
man institutions, it is imperfect, and fails of the accom- 
plishment of its whole object, it is a reason for increased 
efforts on the part of its friends to improve it, rather than 
of discouragement at its short comings. 

If any government can be said to be I y divine author- 
ity, it is the government of the people. And if covered 



410 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

by its broad panoply of equal protection, we find bad as 
well as good, infidels as well as Christians, it proves the 
expansiveness and universality of its beneficent power. 
The rain falls on the unjust as well as the just. Be- 
cause it guarantees the freedom of thought and of belief, 
and, in all, the advocacy of their own opinions, and thus 
commands the approbation of those who, from the few- 
ness of their numbers, or the odium of their tenets, need 
its protecting influence, let it not be said to favor their 
views. Because it secures to the infidel the enjoyment 
of his opinions, let it not be supposed to favor infidelity. 
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Its principles 
are founded in Christianity itself, and find their highest 
sanction in the Gospel. And whenever the time shall 
arrive that every man shall govern his conduct by the 
fundamental rules of Christianity — " thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself" — " and whatsoever you would that 
men should do to you, even so do ye to them," there will 
exist a state of perfect democracy ; and if any human 
government be needed on earth, it will be a perfect de- 
mocratic government, 



DEMOCRACY AND REFORM. 

[extract.] 

We address ourselves to reformers, to men who profess 
to believe in progress, and to be desirous of laboring in 
the holy cause of social melioration. Can they hesitate 
which party to join, when the alternative is to join one or 
the other of the two existing parties? We have no dis- 
position to speak disparagingly of the whig party. In 
that party are many men whom we are proud to reckon 
among our personal friends. We freely acknowledge 
that it embodies much talent, and not a little private worth. 
But every party, if it be worth considering, has a set of 
principles which it must develop, and which it is com- 



DEMOCRACV ANB REFORM. 417 

pelled by the laws of Providence to push to their last 
consequences. These principles are stronger than indi- 
viduals. They carry away individuals in spite of them- 
selves. There is an invincible logic which conquers the 
stubbornest will. He who refuses to go where the prin- 
ciples of his party lead, is inevitably left by the way, and 
he who steps before his party to arrest its onward career, 
is swept away by a resistless current, or trampled in the 
dust by a thousand feet. To judge of a party, you need 
not inquire what are the private virtues of the individuals 
which compose it, but what are the principles on which 
it is founded, the idea around which it rallies, and which 
it is its mission to realize. This idea nakedly presented, 
may be repudiated by a large portion of the party ; ^ew 
of the party may comprehend it, or will its realization ; 
nevertheless, they must all obey it, and nearly all will ul- 
timately adopt its last consequences. 

The capital invested in the soil has, with us, not even 
its legitimate share of influence. The commercial capi- 
tal, the capital employed in business operations, is the 
preponderating power. To give it additional weight is 
therefore to war against the true interests of humanity 

The party which labors to do this is not, and cannot 
be in this country, the party of progress. But the leading 
idea of the whig party is the preponderance of commer- 
cial capital. As the old English whigs supported the 
Bank of England, so they support the Bank of the Uni- 
ted States ; as the old English whigs supported the mer- 
chants, corporations, funding systems, so our American 
whigs support the same. The American whigs possess 
the larger portion of the commercial capital of the coun- 
try, and they contend, that therefore they ought to con- 
trol the government of the country. They ask with the 
celebrated Addison, in his " Whig-Examiner," " Is there 
any thing more reasonable than that they who have all the 
riches of the nation in their possession, or that they who 
have already engrossed all our riches, should have the 
management of our public treasure, and the direction of 
our fleets and armies 1" This question might be very 
proper if our work were to put down an aristocracy 
founded oa birth and the sword, like the old feudal aris 



418 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tocracy ; but it indicates the worst possible system here, 
where our work is to raise up man, and give him the pre- 
eminence over money. 

The whig party also is a foreign party, and anti-Ame- 
rican in its principles. Its policy and movements are 
necessarily controlled, not by a regard to true American 
interests, but by a regard to the interests of the " credit 
system," which the party is wedded to, of which the 
Bank of England is the common centre, and whose 
ramifications extend to all parts of the globe. By com- 
merce and manufactures, by their various business ope- 
rations which are carried on mainly by means of credits, 
they are intimately connected with this system, and vir- 
tually enslaved by it. We should be asking more than 
our knowledge of the weakness of human nature war- 
rants, were we to ask them in case of collision between 
this " credit system" and their country, to be faithful to 
the latter. Where a man's treasure is, there will be his 
heart also. Their treasure is in the " credit system," the 
principal seat of which is not in this country ; conse- 
quently their hearts are abroad rather than at home. So 
long as the " credit system" is controlled by foreign na- 
tions, or in other words, so long as our country is not 
the first commercial nation of the world, support of the 
system must be incompatible with patriotism. England 
is at present the ruling commercial nation ; she controls 
the " credit system" so far as it can be controlled, and 
consequently controls all who are dependent on it. In 
case of collision between this country and Great Britain 
during the existence of the " credit system," we must 
always look to see all true whigs sustaining Great Britain 
as its grand supporter, although her cannon should be 
battering down the walls of our capitol, resolving that it 
is unbecoming a moral and religious people to rejoice at 
American victories over her armies, and singing Te 
Deums whenever her mercenaries succeed in suppressing 
the democratic movements of the Old World. We must 
expect them to do this, for the system they have espoused 
will compel them to do it ; and they will do it spontane- 
ously, religiously, with the feeling that in so doing they 
are honoring God and serving man. Whiggism with ua 



DEMOCRACY AND REFORM. 419 

is, therefore, incompatible with patriotism. The whig 
virtually expatriates himself, or rather forswearing the 
land of his birth, adopts the " credit system" as his coun- 
try, makes it his home, in it erects his altar and places 
his household gods. When that system coincides with 
American principles, he is an American ; when they do 
not, he is an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Chinaman, or 
one of that nation with whose interests for the time being 
they chance to be co-incident. 

Mr. Biddle, who is not altogether destitute of patri- 
otic feelings, had, we apprehend, a glimpse of this fact, 
and hence his efforts to transfer the seat of the credit sys- 
tem from London to Philadelphia. He probably dreamed 
of making the American merchants, through the Bank of 
the United States, all that English merchants now" are 
through the Bank of England. This was a lofty ambi- 
tion, only a single remove from the sublime. AH that 
was wanting for its complete success was, that this coun- 
try should stand first in the scale of commercial nations, 
a rank it unfortunately does not hold, and will not, for 
some considerable time to come. So long as this country 
ie only a second or third rate commercial nation, it cannot 
be the principal seat of the "credit system;" so long as it 
retains its present position in relation to Great Britain, a 
Bank of the United States can only be a branch of the 
Bank of England. The Bank of England, as the great 
centre of the credit system of the world, can, at any mo- 
ment it chooses, win the credit of American merchants, 
and crush our whole banking system, as past experience 
fully demonstrates. By the intricate connection which 
has heretofore existed between the fiscal concerns of our 
government and the general business of banking, we have, 
government, and all, been virtually under the control of 
Great Britain. Hence, the reason why, whenever we have 
demanded justice of Great Britain, we have uniformly 
armed our business men against our own government. 
The war, which we have been carrying on against the 
banking system for the last ten years, has been really a 
war for national independence, and Gen. Jackson, in war- 
ring against the bank, was fighting in the same cause in 
which he fought at New Orleans, and against the same 



420 THE TRUE AMERICAN,' 

enemy. It was therefore that the peoplg, by an unerring 
instinct, selected him, the hero of New Orleans, to be 
their chief in the new campaigns, of which they had a 
forefeeling. 

The democratic party is the patriotic party; it is the 
party jealous of national honor. The whig party, com- 
posed in the main of business men, whose idea is proper- 
ty, not man, are insensible to national honor, when its 
maintenance requires the sacrifice of the facilities of trade 
or commerce. In their estimation, the national honor is 
well enough, when they are making large profits, and is 
endangered only when their chances of gain seem to be 
diminished. Hence it is, that every measure taken to 
maintain the honor of the nation, or to enhance its real 
prospeaty, has been taken by the democratic party amidst 
the most violent, and all but treasonable hostility of the 
whigs. The democracy purchased Louisiana, and thus 
secured to trade the Mississippi, to agriculture an immense 
territory of unrivalled fertility, and to free institutions 
many millions of supporters. The democracy declared 
and sustained the war against Great Britain, in which we 
vindicated our national honor, and asserted the freedom 
of the seas. And during its continuance, the whig party 
were plotting treason with the enemy, refusing all support 
to the government of their country, and cutting off, as far 
as they could, its supplies. 

The democratic party is the party of liberty. This is 
involved in the fact that it is the American party. The 
idea of this country is, we have said, the supremacy of 
man. This supremacy is attained only by the broadest 
freedom. The American idea, under another aspect, then, 
is that of liberty. The truly American party always ral- 
lies around the quickening idea of liberty. No man can 
have the hardihood to pretend that liberty is the idea the 
whigs are struggling to bring out. 

The democratic party has always been faithful to free- 
dom of mind and conscience, the basis of all freedom. 
It has always opposed every thing even approaching a 
religious establishment, and contended that man's inter- 
course with his Maker should be free and voluntary. It 
has opposed all test laws, and uniformly frowned upon 



DEMOCRACY AND REFORM. 421 

every effort to molest a man for his opinions. It inserted 
in the federal constitution the amendments which for- 
bid Congress to establish a religion, or to pass any law 
prohibiting freedom of speech or of the press. It op- 
posed the elder Adams and his party, because in their 
alien and sedition laws they proved themselves the ene- 
mies of free thought and free utterance ; and raised 
Thomas Jefferson to the presidential chair, because he 
was the unflinching friend of freedom of mind. It has 
always said with Milton, "Let truth and falsehood graj>- 
ple. Who ever knew truth put to the worse in free and 
open encounter ?" Her confuting is the best and surest 
suppressing. 

The democratic party is the Christian party. Chris- 
tianity is a revelation of God's mercy to man. It is al- 
ways on the side of freedom and humanity. It addresses 
man as endowed with the capacity to judge of himself 
what is or is not right. Democracy is based on the fact, 
that man does really possess this capacity. Christianity, 
by addressing itself to all men, necessarily recognizes 
this capacity in every man ; democracy, by defending 
universal suffrage, does the same. Christianity values 
man for his simple humanity, not for his trappings, the 
accidents of birth, wealth, or position ; so does demo- 
cracy. Christianity, aside from its design to fit the in- 
dividual for communion with the blest after death, seeks 
to introduce a new order of things on the earth, to exalt 
the humble, abash the proud, to establish the reign of 
justice, and enable every man to sit under his own vine 
and fig-tree, with none to molest or make afraid. 

The democratic party is the party of progress. This 
is involved in what has already been said. A party ga- 
thers round an idea or principle, which is its life, its soul. 
That idea it can never abandon, and live ; nor can it 
ever receive a new idea, without losing its identity. If 
left to itself, it will unfold, exhaust its idea; and having 
done this, it dies. Thus, English whiggism, having ex- 
hausted its original idea, having found its euthanasia, in 
the " Reform Bill," has gone the way of all the earth, 
and is suffered to lie in state still, merely because neither 
tories nor radicals are prepared to assume the responsi- 
36 



422 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

bility of heirs, and give it burial. The whigs in this 
country are demonstrating the same law. The idea 
around which they gather, is offensive to a majority of 
the American people. This the more discerning of our 
whig friends perceive, and, therefore, they would fain 
change the doctrines of the party. They have even tried 
to make it pass for the democratic party. Vain efforts ! 
They may change its name, receive into its ranks many 
who once thought themselves republicans, and submit to 
be led on by men, who once enjoyed the confidence of 
the democracy ; but nothing can change its character ; 
its identity remains ; and your Lincoln's, Selden's, 
Duane's, Verplank's, Talmadges, and Rives's, who gene- 
rously undertake to give it a democratic aspect, can change 
nothing in its principles or direction, but are themselves 
swept away by its resistless current. The mission of the 
democratic party is to unfold the great idea of justice, 
and reduce it to practice in all man's social and political 
relations. It stands, therefore, not as the representative 
of a fraction of the race, but of the race itself, and, 
therefore, like the race, it is immortal. This great idea 
of justice the party is destined to realize. From this 
work it cannot withdraw itself, if it would. Its leaders 
may be false to it, and seek to betray it ; but it leaves 
them by the way, and with or without new leaders, con- 
tinues its march. No matter how high a rank a man 
may have held in its estimation, the moment he proves 
false to the mission of the party, he is left, though leaving 
him be like plucking out a right eye, or cutting off a right 
hand. Nothing from within can betray it, or divert it 
from its onward course. Many of the most active mem- 
bers of the whig party were once in its ranks, but it has 
not missed them. It is never in want of a man compe- 
tent to lead on its forces, nor of an " available" candidate 
for its suffrages. A panic may now and then occur, and 
produce a momentary confusion, but it instantly recovers 
itself, re-establishes order, and takes up its line of march, 
ready to grapple with any force it may meet. 

Now as the party, according to the general laws of par- 
ty, must go on unfolding its idea, and as that idea is uni- 
versal and all-comprehensive, we say truly, that it is the 



DEMOCRACY AND REFORM. 4S3 

party of progress. Justice is its idea, and this idea it 
must unfold, and this idea in its unfolding must reach all 
the reforms the friends of progress can desire. Progress 
is simply the better and fuller application of justice to our 
social and political relations. AH the progress which in 
the very nature of things now can be, must come from 
the unfolding of the idea which constitutes the life and 
soul of the democratic party. Then as friends of pro- 
gress you should support that party, and contribute what 
you can to help it onward in the development and appli- 
cation of its general principles. 

Are you contending for universal education ? What 
principle will establish a true system of universal educa- 
tion, but that which declares the supremacy of man over 
money, and recognizes man in all his integrity in every 
individual man ? Are you the advocate of the rights of 
woman ? How will you succeed but by appealing to the 
great principle of democracy, that right is paramount to 
might 1 Are you a non-resistant, a peace man ? What 
means have you to compass your ends, but by aiding the 
democracy to introduce the rule of justice into all public 
affairs? Are you an advocate of the working-man, anx- 
ious to secure to honest industry its due reward, and to 
the laborer his true social position ? You must do it by 
means of that party which struggles to raise up universal 
humanity, to abolish all privilege, and to place the govern- 
ment in the hands of man, instead of money. Are you 
an abolitionist, and would you free the slave ? What 
party puts forth general principles which in their gradual 
unfolding must break every unjust bond, and set every 
captive free ? The day of emancipation is not yet. It 
were useless to emancipate the slave to-day, because we 
should be merely changing the form, not the substance, 
of his slcivery. But the democratic party puts forth prin- 
ciples, which must, in the end, abolish slavery, and do it 
too at the very day, the very hour, when it can be done 
with advantage to the cause of freedom and justice. Sla- 
very is doomed ; man will not always tyrannize over man. 
There are causes at work which will free the slave, and 
free him too, with the consent and joy of his master. Let 
these causes work on, and do not murmur because their 



424 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

full effects are not realised to-day. God doubtless could 
have made the world in one day, but we are told that he 
chose to employ six days in creating it. The seed is not 
sown, and the corn harvested the same day. Be sure that 
you have principles in operation that will effect your work, 
and you may retain your composure. The democratic 
party embraces the idea of universal freedom to universal 
man, and it will realise this idea, just as fast as we can 
urge onward the general progress of humanity, and no 
faster. 

We have now given some of the reasons why reform* 
ers should sustain the democratic party. That party em-j 
braces the general principles of liberty, of progress, 
which include within them, as the oak is included in the 
acorn, all possible reforms. It represents to-day in this 
western world, entire humanity, and as such has a right 
to demand the hearty co-operation of every true friend 
of his race. 



PROSPECTS OF THE DEMOCRACY. 

The whig party, which we have been in the habit of 
regarding as the legitimate heir of the old federal party, 
modified merely to meet the new questions which have 
come up, has not been willing to rest its claims on the 
fact of its being the continuation of that party, but it 
has called itself democratic, and challenged success on 
the ground of being more democratic than the democratic 
party itself Why has it done this, if not from the con- 
viction that democracy is the dominant faith of the coun- 
try, and that all open and avowed opposition to it must 
be unavailing ? In doing this, has it not said that its 
success must be proportionate to the belief it can produce 
that it is the real democratic party? that to conquer, it 
must steal the democratic thunder, and swear that it is 
whig property 1 It is a proof that the American people 
are sound at the core, and that nothing is necessary to 



PROSPECTS OF THE DEMOCRACY. 425 

carry any measure but to make it be seen to be a truly 
democratic measure. 

The true democratic party always relies with a firm 
faith on principle. It is conscious of its own rectitude, 
that its cause is the cause of truth and justice; and it 
knows the people are with it ; that the prayers of all 
good men, the world over, are for it ; and that Heaven 
with all its omnipotence, stands pledged to give it suc- 
cess. In prosperity it is not elated ; in adversity it does 
not despond ; but ever keeps on the even tenor of its 
way, with a serene brow and a tranquil pulse. It con- 
fides too firmly in the power of truth and justice to ever 
resort to artifice for its success. Calmly, but distinctly, 
it proclaims its great doctrines, which are always the in- 
tuitions of the Universal Reason, and doubts not that in 
due time those doctrines will embody themselves in insti- 
tutions, and diifuse their fragrance over the whole earth. 

This true democratic party, as it presents itself to us, 
is the true Movement Party of the country, forming the 
advanced guard of the grand army of progress, now dis- 
playing its plumes throughout the civilized world, and 
promising not to lay down its arms till man every where 
is free. It is the party of Liberty, of Humanity, and as 
such must commend itself to every friend of his race. If 
it fulfil its present promises, it will realize a truly demo- 
cratic society ; enlist religion, art, science, literature, 
philosophy on its side, and prove to the world that man 
can be really great and good only where the people are 
sovereign. 

In the states themselves, the party must be really and 
truly democratic. It must go for the whole people; 
against all monopolies ; against all exclusive privileges ; 
against all aristocratic measures, and in favor of equal 
rights ; in favor of education, literature, art, and philoso- 
phy. It must plant itself on the primitive fact that all men 
are born essentially equal, and that there is something 
divine in every man. It must be ever on the side of 
freedom, sympathize with the oppressed, with all who are 
struggling for their rights. It must be high toned and 
moral ; confiding in the people, and still more in the im- 
mortal vigor of truth and justice. Then its triumph is 
37 



426 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

certain, and will be a blessing to the country — to the 
world. Its success rests on the fact, that it rallies around 
a principle which is planted deep in the human heart, 
and in the triumph of which entire Humanity is interest- 
ed. The masses are moved only by great and everlasting 
principles, which touch every individual of the race. 

Parties, merely as parties, are nothing to the masses ; 
individuals, as simple individuals, are nothing to them. 
Show them tliat this or that man embodies in himself the 
cause of the millions, that in raising him to office the 
cause of the millions is secured, and then as the repre- 
sentative of a cause does he become of importance. 
No matter how great or how worthy a man is viewed, 
simply as an individual, the masses will not sustain him, 
and ought not to sustain him, unless he represents their 
cause. 

The contest for men is insignificant. Individuals are 
nothing, — causes are every thing ; and the man who would 
stand at the head of his country, must be the impersona- 
tion of his country's cause. Parties, as such, again, are 
nothing, — causes every thing. Let the standard of the 
masses be raised, the banner of Equality be unfurled, and 
distinctly seen to wave over the camp of the party, and 
the masses shall rally around that standard, joyously enrol 
themselves under that banner. Let there then be no 
thought about men, but let the whole energy of the soul 
be given to causes. Seize the right cause, and doubt not 
the right party will gather round you, with the right man at 
its head. Ideas are omnipotent ; bring out the true idea, 
it will choose its leader, and organize its party. If the 
democratic party, so called, adhere to the democratic 
idea, if it continue to show that it has in its keeping, a 
sacred cause, a cause dear to Humanity, and which ought 
to prevail, it may rest assured of complete success. 

If it be asked, which of the two parties that now di- 
vide the country will succeed ? we answer, truth and jus- 
tice reign, and they have decreed that this shall be the 
land of freedom ; and the party which best represents the 
cause of freedom will triumph. The party which best 
represents this cause is, in our judgment, the party which 
calls itself democratic. Since it has fallen back on first 



WASHINGTON S OPINION OP PAPER MONEY. 427 

piinciples, it has come into harmony with the mighty 
spirit of Freedom now agitating the world ; and we doubt 
not its success. Through it now speaks the voice of 
eternal principle, which is the voice of the people ; and 
the voice of the people is the voice of God ; and when 
God speaks, who dare deny that he will be heard and 
obeyed ? 



WASHINGTON'S OPINION OF PAPER MONEY, 

CONTAINED IN A LETTER TO T. STONE.* 

Mount Vernon, Fchruarij 27, 1787. 
Dear Sir, 

Your favor of the 30th ultimo came duly to hand. To 
give an opinion in a cause of so much importance as that, 
which has warmly agitated the two branches of your le- 
gislature, and which, from the appeal that is made, is 
likely to create great and perhaps dangerous divisions, is 
rather a delicate matter ; but, as this diversity of opinion 
is on a subject which has, I believe, occupied the minds 
of most men, and as my sentiments thereon have been 
fully and decidedly expressed long before the Assembly 
either of Maryland or this .state was convened, I do not 
scruple to declare that, if I had a voice in your legisla- 
ture, it would have been given decidedly against a paper 
emission upon the general principles of its utility as a 
representative, and the necessity of it as a medium. 

To assign reasons for this opinion would be as unne- 
cessary as tedious. The ground has been so often trod, 
that a place hardly remains untouched. In a word, the 
necessity arising from a want of specie is represented as 
greater than it really is. I contend that it is by the sub- 
stance, not with the shadow of a thing, we are to be bene- 
fited. The wisdom of man, in my humble opinion, can- 
not at this time devise a plan by which the credit of paper 
money would be long supported ; consequently deprecia- 

* Member of the Senate of Maryland. 



428 THE TRUE AMERICAN. 

tion keeps pace with the quantity of the emission, and 
articles, for which it is exchanged, rise in a greater ratio 
than the sinking value of the money. Wherein, then, is 
the farmer, the planter, the artisan benefited? The 
debtor may be, because, as I have observed, he gives the 
shadow in lieu of the substance; and, in proportion to 
his gain, the creditor or the body politic suffers. Whe- 
ther it be a legal tender or not, it will, as has been ob- 
served very truly, leave no alternative. It must be that 
or nothing. An evil equally great is, the door it imme- 
diately opens for speculation, by which the least design- 
ing, and perhaps most valuable, part of the community 
are preyed upon by the more knowing and crafty specu- 
lators. 

But, contrary to my intention and declaration, I am 
offering reasons in support of my opinion ; reasons too, 
which of all others are least pleasing to the advocate for 
paper money. I shall therefore only observe generally, 
that so many people have suffered by former emissions, 
that, like a burnt child who dreads the fire, no person will 
touch it who can possibly avoid it. The natural conse- 
quence of which will be, that the specie, which remains 
unexported, will be instantly locked up. 

With great esteem and regard, I am, dear sir, &,c. 
GEO. WASHINGTON 



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